Vital frontline workers such as Guards, nurses and teachers need to be paid more.
Newstalk Breakfast host Ciara Kelly believes we need to 'look long and hard' at frontline pay and benchmarking.
Benchmarking means collecting information on salary and benefits packages offered by similar organisations operating in the same industry.
It comes as the US Embassy in Dublin warned travellers to 'keep a low profile' here, and suggested they should safeguard valuables, not carry large amounts of cash and be aware of their surroundings.
It also said they should avoid walking alone, especially at night, and not display expensive jewellery or watches.
Stephen Termini and his sons Michael and Jesse Rizzuto via GoFundMeIt comes after US tourist Stephen Termini was left with life-changing injuries after he was attacked on Talbot Street in the capital.
Ciara said the warning could be extremely damaging to Ireland's international reputation.
"This is dreadful, dreadful message to be sending out to tourists, to the diaspora, to the world at-large," she said.
"This is an awful message, and the reality is that it's probably valid because there are dangers on our streets and there are no-go areas.
"It isn't good enough, Minister for Justice Helen McEntee, to say you can't be safe everywhere all the time".
Ciara said too many places now feel unsafe and we shouldn't wash our hands of it.
"It's not normal and it wasn't always like this".
'These are vital jobs'
Ciara said the narrative that we need more Gardaí, but can't get them, is not good enough.
"That's the same narrative that we have for nurses - we need more nurses but we can't get them, we need more teachers but we can't get them," she said.
"I think we need to look long and hard at paying frontline workers more.
"That probably means throwing benchmarking in the bin, or re-benchmarking, because some professions are now more important than others than when benchmarking was set up.
"If it was an open market, we would just have to pay people more like they do in tech and other things.
"These are vital jobs for our society and they're tough jobs.
"Frontline workers that do a tough job and a vital job, that we can't get, we need to pay them more.
"There are certain jobs that are more important".
'The system is broken'
Ciara said the rise and fall of jobs in order of importance is a natural element.
"We used to have milkmen, we used to have chimneysweeps - they're gone - we don't have them anymore," she said.
"Jobs become more important over time; Guards, nurses, teachers – I would be willing to pay them more because we need them.
"If we are looking at anti-social behaviour at the level that we are around our city streets, and we know we need more Guards and we can't get them to sign up, then we need to change something because the system is broken," she added.
