The Minister for Justice has moved to assure prospective visitors to Ireland that the country is a safe place to visit.
Helen McEntee was responding to updated travel advisories from the US Embassy in Dublin.
It urged US citizens travelling to Ireland to "exercise good personal security" after "a number of recent incidents reported in the Irish media" and stated that they should safeguard valuables, such as credit cards and passports, and refrain from carrying large amounts of cash.
"The US Embassy Dublin encourages all citizens to be aware of their surroundings, especially when travelling in unfamiliar places, crowded locations, empty streets, or at night," it added.
The advice also urges citizens to be aware of their environment and "avoid walking alone, if possible, especially during hours of darkness".
Ms McEntee said the embassy had updated its advice following a number of incidents recently, including an assault on an American tourist in Dublin city centre last week.
Stephen Termini, from Washington DC, sustained serious injuries in the attack on Store Street on Wednesday night.
The 57-year-old is being treated at Beaumont Hospital for serious injuries.
A teenage boy has been charged in connection with the attack.
Minister McEntee said Ireland is still deemed to be at Level 1 in terms of US safety notifications, in common with other European Union member states.
But she said this was not to diminish the concerns that people had about the effect of recent assaults, which she said were not acceptable.
Speaking in Castlebar, Co Mayo, Ms McEntee said there were "very clear issues that we need to deal with and one of the best ways to respond is to have more gardaí on the beat, on the ground".
She said she was assured that there would be an additional 48 gardaí on patrol in the Dublin Metropolitan Region in the coming week, when new members of the force are attested.
Ms McEntee said her message to prospective tourists would be that they were welcome in Ireland and that, for the most part, the country and its cities were very safe.
She said she stood by her assertion last week that Dublin was a safe place.
She had lived in the capital in the past, for a number of years, socialised there, and was out and about in the city regularly, the minister said, without members of An Garda Síochána accompanying her.
"We as a Government acknowledge that there have been problems and difficulties and reassure people that we are doing everything possible to respond to those challenges," she said.
Ms McEntee said she appreciated that people had very real concerns but a visible community policing presence, combined with other initiatives, would be the focus of efforts to respond to that.
In that regard, staffing resources alone would not solve the problems and other supports, such as body- worn cameras and increased CCTV coverage, would also assist gardaí in their task.
She said it was not fair to generalise that every young person had no respect for gardaí but that it was important to engage with children at a much earlier age, in places where such behaviour was emerging.
She instanced a meeting she had today with members of the Castlebar Youth Diversion Team, who told her that the supports and initiatives in place were yielding results.
Minister McEntee said these need to be mirrored in schools and in communities.
The minister said she would be willing to meet with the family of Stephen Termini, who are understood to be en route to Ireland today.
Varadkar, Harris to discuss safety issue
Yesterday, the Taoiseach said there needs to be a more visible presence of gardaí on the streets as "our cities kind of deteriorated during the pandemic period and have never really come back to the level of safety that they were".
Leo Varadkar said he will meet Garda Commissioner Drew Harris to discuss the issue.
There has been significant additional investment in youth supports over the last three budgets, according to Minister for Children Roderic O'Gorman.
Speaking on RTÉ's Today With Philip Boucher-Hayes, Mr O'Gorman said the Department of Children works closely with the Department of Justice on youth diversion projects.
"These are regarded as being extremely successful in terms of diverting young people who may have some initial offenses ... and away from subsequent reoffence."
Minister O'Gorman acknowledged a number of significant assaults in Dublin city centre recently, but said the North Inner City initiative, which supports children and young people, "undertakes great work in the area".
The response to problems in Dublin's inner city has to be on a number of grounds, including policing, he added.
Meanwhile, Minister McEntee said it was not fair to generalise that every young person had no respect for gardaí.
She said it was important to engage with children at a much earlier age, in places where such behaviour was emerging.
Ms McEntee instanced a meeting she had today with members of the Castlebar Youth Diversion Team, who told her that the supports and initiatives in place were yielding results.
She said these need to be mirrored in schools and in communities.
Additional reporting Colman O'Sullivan
