DRUG dealing takes place on Dublin streets in plain view of gardai, the Garda Commissioner, Mr Pat Byrne, was told yesterday.
Mr Byrne and the Assistant Commissioner for the Dublin Metropolitan Area, Mr Tom King, were meeting a delegation from anti drug groups in the north inner city at Garda Headquarters.
The delegation was led by Mr Tony Gregory, the Independent TD, and Mr Christy Burke, the Sinn Fein councillor, and included Mr Fergus McCabe and Ms Marie Metcalf of the Inner City Organisations Network, and two other anti drug campaigners, Ms Chrissie Mangan and Ms Mary O'Driscoll.
Mr Burke said Mr King promised they would soon hear "the sound of Garda feet marching against the dealers".
Mr Gregory said he told the commissioner that he and a garda recently watched drug dealing on a Dublin street. The garda was positioned to stop dealing at a block of flats but dealers have simply moved up the road.
The Commissioner appeared to be taken aback and asked: "Did the guard not have a radio"? Mr Gregory said the garda had, but the force had no plan to cope with, the dealers, who would simply move on to the next area.
Mr Byrne said the force is preparing a plan. There is speculation that there will be redeployment, with extra gardai allocated to certain zones of the city.