Permanent night-time welfare zone to be introduced in Dublin city centre

Eva Osborne

A permanent welfare zone for people on nights out in Dublin city centre is expected to be introduced in the coming weeks.

The measure, which includes medics and security staff, was piloted on Culture Night and over Christmas.

Speaking on Newstalk, Dublin's night-time economy advisor, Ray O'Donoghue, said it will be available for people who run into trouble.

"Hopefully that will be up and running again in the next couple of weeks," he said.

"It should hopefully deter anti-social behaviour and just give people somewhere to go as opposed to A&E or the Garda station and so on."

When the initiative was piloted at Christmas, O'Donoghue said one of its aims was to take pressure off gardaí and hospitals to deal with more serious issues.

The initiative is supported by the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media.