'Bylaws with a Cork twist': New busking rules to come into effect from May

CORK City Council’s street-performer bylaws have been approved and are due to come into effect next month.

The bylaws will give An Garda Síochána the power to direct a performer to move at any time, if they are outside specified hours on a designated street marker, have exceeded their time limit of two hours, or if the performer does not hold or produce a valid permit.

Anyone who contravenes the bylaws or refuses to comply with the gardaí shall be guilty of an offence and liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding €1,500.

A permit, priced at €30, is necessary to perform without amplification and an additional €30 for amplification. This fee is waived for those aged under 25, and a short-term street-performance permit will also be available for €10, plus an additional €10 for amplification, for this three-month period.

Green Party councillor Dan Boyle discussed the drafting of the bylaws and said there were 45 submissions to the public consultation. “Issues were teased out as we discussed how we could organise street performers in the city, so that all interests in the city were best represented, and we could avoid repetition and needless noise,” Mr Boyle said.

Fellow Green Party councillor Oliver Moran said that street performers suggested a number of changes and explained why they were important.

This input led to the minimum age at which teenagers could busk without parents being changed from 18 to 16, digital donations being allowed, and a cap being introduced on fees for large groups. Mr Moran added that these were “bylaws with a Cork twist”.

“We are a city ruled by its vibrance, and we always have supported street artists, but traders at one particular, popular busking location have told of the same person and the same song all day, driving everybody mad and driving people out of town,” Fianna Fáil councillor Terry Shannon added.

“The regulations here, hopefully, will stop that. The issue, as always, is implementation: How do we know someone is there two hours or more? How will the decibel level be policed? If it’s not supervised by gardaí, it’s useless.”

This was echoed by Fianna Fáil councillor John Sheehan, who said that “no bylaws are perfect. The challenge is the enforcement, but these are very workable and good for the city.”

Independent councillor Ken O’Flynn welcomed the laws, but said: “It was 2013 when I first proposed busking bylaws.”

He added: “Eleven years later, I think we have to learn to be braver, bolder, and swifter when it comes to bylaws and being innovative, because in 2013 this was voted down and I was told we have to wait for Dublin or for Galway to see what they do.”

The new bylaws will come into force on May 20.