Out of sight of the political establishment in this State, in bleak flat complexes all around Dublin city, a social revolution of sorts is under way. Thousands of ordinary people - frustrated by the manner in which the drugs problem has been allowed to develop to crisis - are on the march.
Almost every night for a month or more, there have been spontaneous anti drugs marches in working class suburbs all over the city. At least 3,000 people marched through the centre of Dublin yesterday in the largest anti drugs protest since those organised by the Concerned Parents movement over a decade ago.
There is a clear danger that events could spiral out of control with the marches giving tacit support and encouragement to vigilantism. There is a danger that Sinn Fein will infiltrate these community based groups for their own nefarious purposes. These concerns are serious and well grounded, but they must not be allowed to obscure the real importance of what is taking places on the streets of our capital city; tens of thousands of people are angry and exasperated. Many have lost family, friends and relatives to the drug dealers. Many watch in dismay as the dealers ply their trade on the balconies and on the streets around them. All share a belief that they have been left to their own devices. They have no faith in the ability and commitment of the Garda to combat the problem, still less in the Government and the main political parties.
Their scepticism is understandable. There has been no shortage of platitudes about the importance of the drugs issue, about the threat that it poses to the fabric of our society, about the urgent need for action. But few of the law and order measures - announced by the Minister for Justice, Mrs Owen, as part of her anti drugs package over a year ago - appear to have had any real impact on the streets. This is scarcely surprising: notwithstanding the noteworthy efforts of individual gardai on the ground, the force appears to have made little significant progress in weeding out the drug dealers. There have been few arrests and no prosecutions in relation to a whole series of drug related deaths.
Resources are part of the problem (remarkably, there are still no more than 150 dedicated anti drugs officers in the force of some 10,000 plus), but there is also a lack of direction and strategy. On the ground, the force appears uncertain whether to arrest every small time pusher or whether to concentrate its energies on the main dealers. And there also appears to be a lack of high quality intelligence information on the main dealers.
The situation is not hopeless. In the early 1980s, when this society was confronted by a drugs crisis on a similar scale, several so called "untouchables" were arrested and charged. This success came after Garda management, under pressure from the media and politicians, made a determined effort to target the main dealers. In one very successful operation in the inner city, young Dublin based gardai even posed as addicts to secure convictions.
Today, the drugs crisis needs the same kind of concentrated attention. The force needs to improve its investigative capacity with specialised undercover units and a renewed emphasis on intelligence gathering. To his credit, the Garda Commissioner, Mr Byrne, will shortly announce a series of measures designed to confront the problem. It is to be hoped that these will help to make a real difference. As any of those on the march in Dublin yesterday will confirm, there is much ground to be made up.