A new report has found that there has been a surge in drug addiction and crack cocaine use in Ballymun in Dublin, which has coincided with a reduction in gardaí in the area.
The report 'Ballymun – a Brighter Future' states that open drug dealing is taking place, drug addicts from outside are being drawn to the area and criminal gangs are targeting drug users to switch from heroin to crack cocaine.
The report says more gardaí, educational and social services are needed to suppress the criminal gangs;
prevent people getting involved in crime and support those who need to get away from it.
Ballymun is one of the most disadvantaged communities in the country, according to the National Deprivation Index.
Male unemployment is at 50% or higher and the area has the highest number of children in care per 1,000 in the country, more than twice the national average.
Tusla's own internal audit for last year stated that children at risk of significant harm were "not receiving an effective service".
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Sixty children under 16 dropped out of school and need alternative education programmes and at least ten more social workers are needed for the Child Protection Team, according to the report.
A pilot programme called the Jumpstart Programme ran for six months in 2015 with a view to continuing the project afterwards, but it did not receive any further funding.
Nine children aged 13 to 16 took part in the programme, with seven completing the six months - on a Monday to Friday basis and with 100% attendance.
The programme was overseen by Ballymun Youth Resource Outreach Team Project Leader Angela Birch, who said three topics were covered each day; an educational element, a life skills element and a social element.
"By the end of the six months there was a reduction in anti-social behaviour, there was a reduction in substance use, there was an increase in confidence, an increase in mental well-being, there was a change in attitude of themselves and their belief in themselves, they had hope and aspirations," she said.
"They had a belief that they could do more than the labels that had been put on them throughout their life up until that point.
"There was a huge transformation," Ms Birch added.
A former participant of the programme, who was 14 when the course was running, said he found it really beneficial.
"The workers were good, the trips were good, it was all good, a good experience."
He said it kept him off the streets and out of trouble and gave him something to do each day, adding "it didn't feel like school, but you were learning."
He believes the resumption of a programme for vulnerable children who need support outside the mainstream school system would really help.
"Children that need it, it would help them. The right people that need it, there's no point putting wasters on it. But if someone's trying then they'll love it," he said.
Dublin City Council is currently housing large numbers of tenants in Ballymun that need high levels of support.
Ballymun is also policed in a garda division that has the fourth highest level of murders and attempted murders in the country, but has the eighth lowest level of garda staffing of the 28 garda divisions.
The report acknowledges the work being done by gardaí in Ballymun, but says they are risking their own personal safety to protect the community while inadequate staffing levels undermine their work.
The number of gardaí in the Ballymun station fell from 130 in 2009, to 113 in 2011. The staffing levels have gradually increased since then, with 142 gardaí in the Ballymun station at the end of last month.
The Ballymun Local Drugs and Alcohol Task Force said during those years the number of gardaí in the drugs unit was cut from 12 to three.
In the last year, there has been some restoration to the local drugs unit with eight staff in the first half of 2020, according to An Garda Síochána.
The report says Ballymun is suffering from a surge in criminality, youth crime and crack cocaine use.
It says open drug dealing is happening on a scale that is seen in very few other communities and drug offences in Ballymun have doubled over the last four years.
The report says this must be tackled, as open drug dealing stigmatises the community, leads people to withdraw from community life and normalises drug dealing, drug use, and violence for young people growing up in Ballymun.
It also draws people from outside the community into Ballymun to buy and use drugs.
Criminal networks in Ballymun have targeted people using opiates to get them hooked on crack cocaine, while staffing in the garda drugs unit dropped from 12 to three.
In the past year, the report says, just eight drug unit and eight community gardaí were working from the Ballymun station and up to 50 more gardaí are needed in Ballymun.
The report says a comprehensive approach is needed to deal with Ballymun’s criminals and criminal gangs along with early interventions to prevent people and children from falling victim to crime, and support for those with issues of addiction, trauma and mental illness.
Intergenerational effects that can lock families into cycles of adversity, deprivation and ill health also need to be tackled involving gardaí, Tusla, Dublin City Council, the Probation Service, as well as the other social, educational and welfare services.
The report says it is vital to break that cycle and protect the next generation.
Ballymun has a long history of drug and heroin use dating back to the 1970s and 1980s.
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It remains the community with the highest level of problematic opiate use in the country, ten times higher than the national average.
Now drug users in the area are reporting being targeted to switch from heroin to crack cocaine, while local residents report people coming from outside the community to buy drugs.
Local agencies and task forces warn there is no treatment for crack cocaine and it can lead to users neglecting themselves or their children.
One resident, a woman in her 70s, said she has been living in Ballymun for 41 years and sees a change in her community.
When she first moved to the area, her neighbours used to chat on the doorstep and play games on the street until all hours of the night, she said.
Now she is concerned that kind of community feel is slowly ebbing away because people are fearful of what is going on.
"There's a lot of people being beaten up for owing money, a lot of people coming from outside with this drug crack cocaine. There seems to be more of a glut of it in certain areas," she added.
The pensioner said open drug dealing in parks and public places is common.
"It's not something that's hidden. It's very much out in the open," she said.
The woman said elderly people, including herself, will not go out at night, something that she was never afraid to do before.
But she is more concerned for children and young people.
"If they're out on the streets and they're not doing anything and somebody offers them money to do something, of course a lot of young children will go that way.
"I think there's a lot more violence involved in the drug scene at the moment. Children are watching that and seeing it as a norm," she said.
Additional reporting: Gail Conway
