Mr. Adrian Cummins:

It is probably a legacy of the pandemic when the city centre was essentially shut down. When it was reopened, substantial numbers of the workforce were working from home from Tuesday to Thursday. What we are finding now is that businesses are in decline and late-night trading is not happening as much as it used to. The hardcore facts show that some of the hospitality businesses not too far from here are reporting they are 30% to 40% down in their trade compared with pre-pandemic times. That would correlate with people working from home and there being less activity in the city centre. When there are high profile cases of tourists being assaulted or when street crime is in the news people get a bit anxious and edgy and footfall declines in certain demographics as a result. We do a lot of polling of consumer attitudes and the decline is reflective of the fact that people do not feel safe. That is something we have to address, not just us but all the city agencies and Dublin City Council. We are trying to work with them to make sure we can bring the capital city back to where it was and should be.