BUSINESS OWNERS IN Dublin City Centre have spoken of staff being subjected to intimidation, along with verbal and physical abuse due to persistent anti-social behaviour and drug use.
The situation with anti-social behaviour has deteriorated in recent years since the Covid-19 pandemic, one business owner said.
While drug use and related issues have long been a problem in the area – and something reported on by The Journal over the years – another person said it has become “out of control at this stage”.
The Journal visited areas of the city centre this week, from Liffey Street just north of the Ha’Penny Bridge to Aston Quay just south of O’Connell Bridge, where a man was stabbed during an assault by a large group on Monday.
While on a walk along Aston Quay, we spoke to Tony Gallagher, a recently-retired Garda Inspector who now works with security consultants the Ashtree Risk Group and has been working with Dublin retailers to help them mitigate risks to their businesses.
“What we find is that staff are getting afraid, afraid of the type of customer that is coming in,” Gallagher said.
He said the level of shoplifting in the city centre has reached a “crisis level”.
“I was at a supermarket recently where the lady retail staff assistant was threatened with scissors and some stock was taken from behind the counter,” Gallagher said.
He believes that there has been an escalation in anti-social behaviour in the city as of late that is being “driven by cocaine”.
Gallagher said the issues are not being helped by the intensification of hostels in the city centre. He said the methadone dispensing clinics should be dispersed to areas further out.
Aston Quay is also home to Copper & Straw, a coffee shop that opened in October 2022.
Speaking to The Journal over the phone this week, the shop’s owner Stephen Kennedy said: “What we’ve noticed, really, from even before day one when we were fitting the unit out is just how relentless and continuous the drug dealing is in the city centre and, in particular, on the corner of Aston Quay.”
When asked if he believes the anti-social behaviour in the area stems from an array of issues, Kennedy said he believes it’s “exclusively drug related”.
“My shop on Aston Quay was robbed at knifepoint in our first month of trading. Someone came into the shop at 8.30am on a Thursday morning, [they] came in with a knife, locked staff in the toilets and took the till,” he said.
Kennedy said that while the anti-social behaviour mostly occurs outside the shop, “on occassion it spills over” into the premises.
“That can be very, very challenging. We’ve had staff verbally abused, we’ve had money and change thrown at staff,” he said, adding that it can be “very upsetting and very stressful” for the workers.
He said the situation is “out of control at this stage”.
Down the quays and across the river lies Liffey Street. The Journal visited the local Spar shop and spoke with the owner, Brian O’Carroll.
He believes the issues with anti-social behaviour in the area have gotten “a lot, lot worse” since the pandemic.
“There wouldn’t be a day that would go by that we wouldn’t have an incident. How big or small, it doesn’t matter. We shouldn’t have to put up with this kind of carry on,” O’Carroll said.
He said his staff have been “attacked and spat at and told you’re robbing our jobs”.
He said many of his staff are non-Irish nationals and that they have been called racist slurs.
“Racism is huge, unfortunately,” he said.
Although Gallagher and Kennedy have linked the anti-social behaviour in the city to drug use, O’Carroll said it comes down to a multitude of issues.
“We can’t put it all down to homelessness, we can’t put it all down to drugs. There’s alcohol problems, there’s lots of problems in the city centre,” he said.
“We depend in Dublin on visitors and I hate them seeing what they’re seeing in town. They must think ‘Where have I landed?’.
“You only have to go five or six miles out of the city centre either direction, north or south, east or west, and you don’t see it,” he said, questioning why those causing issues congregate in the city centre.
“We have to identify which are the problems. Is it an alcohol problem, is it a homeless problem, is it a drug problem, or is it a combination? But it’s not up to us as retailers to sort it out.”
Martin Harte, CEO of The Temple Bar Company, noted that there is a “large number of drug treatment facilities within a very small area of the city centre” and that people who are drug addicted come into the city as a result.
He said they are then being “targeted by drug dealers”.
Harte said he does not believe the situation in Dublin is any worse than it was 15 or 20 years ago, but added that it has changed.
“You’ll probably see people with mental health issues, you’ll see people with drug problems, you’ll see people buying and selling pills,” he said.
“Dublin has a significant issue in terms of it has a lot of people with mental health issues, and some chaotic drug users do congregate in the city centre.
Harte also said he can’t remember members of his staff ever being threatened.
“I’ve guys running the food market on Saturdays in the middle of Temple Bar, there would be drug users and people moving around. I’ve never had anyone assaulted, I’ve never had anyone robbed,” he said.
The Temple Bar Company represents dozens of businesses in the area. Harte said the number of complaints the Company receives regarding these issues is “minimal”.
Since October 2021, An Garda Síochána has been carrying out an initiative called Operation Citizen. The operation was established following serious anti-social behaviour in the capital in the summer of 2021.
In a statement to The Journal, gardaí said through the operation, “particular focus is placed on anti-social behaviour, public order and quality of life issues, assaults and high volume crimes”.
“The aim of this operation is to deliver an enhanced high visibility policing presence in Dublin city centre on a daily basis,” the statement said.
The force said Operation Citizen also focuses on “a collaborative community and stakeholder engagement approach, recognising that many of the issues that manifest themselves in the city centre and communities across Dublin, such as drug-related crime and youth crime, require an inter-agency approach”.
The general consensus from those who spoke to The Journal has been that the gardaí provide good support to businesses on the ground, but that extra resources are needed for the force.
Tony Gallagher told The Journal that Operation Citizen is “not consistent”.
“There are some days where I know there have been been as little as two guards serving an entire District,” he said.
“Gardaí are great when they are present on the street.
“They themselves want to be out and about and even they have expressed frustration to businesses that there are only a few [gardaí] in the entire District at times,” Gallagher said.
“The frontline uniformed gardaí need support, they are carrying the burden of multiple calls. There has been too much lateral movement into specialist roles at the cost of depleting the frontline,” he said.
When asked about his experience with gardaí, Brian O’Carroll said it’s “easy to blame the police” when it comes to anti-social behaviour problems.
“We’re in a capital city and we’re going to have a certain level of trouble. It happens all over the world in capital cities. But it’s the level of intimidation and the level of crime that’s unacceptable,” he said.
“The guards have a thankless job, as far as I can see,” he added.
Stephen Kennedy said the support his business gets from gardaí on the ground is “absolutely fantastic”.
However, he added that he doesn’t “see any political party really showing up, really taking this on, showing real leadership”.
“This needs a cross-city response that is appropriately resources and it has to have the specific objective of reducing open drug dealing on the streets of the city.”
Aga Szot is an artist working from the Icon Factory on Aston Place, just off Aston Quay.
She echoed Kennedy’s thoughts on garda support.
“We have a few community police who … when we call them they’re always here when we have some serious issues,” Szot said.
“But the problem is with the police is there’s not enough staff, I think. Obviously, when you have not enough people you can’t properly manage certain situations. I think the problem is somewhere at the top, the police don’t really get enough support,” she said.
Szot explained that she has contacted politicians about anti-social behaviour in the area throughout the years but has had little to no response.
In a statement to The Journal, Dublin City Council said that the matter of anti-social behaviour is addressed by a number of agencies including An Garda Síochána and the council.
The Council said it is involved in the North Inner City Local Community Safety Partnership, which is one of three pilot schemes in the country.
“The Local Community Safety Partnership brings together residents, community representatives, business interests, Councillors, the voluntary sector, the City Council and state services such as An Garda Síochána, Tusla and the HSE,” it said.
“The objective of the Partnership is to help integrate and enhance the existing work of all state agencies engaged in the matters of community safety.”
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