The CEO of Temple Bar Company says Temple Bar is "arguably safer than it has ever been" despite concerns about several high-profile assaults, drug problems and anti-social behaviour locally, and in the wider Dublin city centre area.
In recent weeks, Prime Time witnessed open drug dealing on the main square in Temple Bar and used hidden cameras to document such activity.
On other occasions, Prime Time saw open drug use on the streets in the area, including individuals smoking what appeared to be crack cocaine. CCTV footage obtained showed individuals being attacked.
While gardaí were active locally, and were seen searching those offering drugs for sale, and dispersing groups, people who had been moved on by officers regularly returned to the heart of Temple Bar after officers had left.
"Temple Bar is a very safe area," Temple Bar Company CEO, Martin Harte, told Prime Time.
"If you look at serious crime in the area over the last six months within the Pearse Street area, which Temple Bar forms part of, [it is] down 30% in the first six months of 2023 compared to 2022. It is arguably much safer than it has ever been."
The Temple Bar company represents and lobbies on behalf of businesses in the area and promotes Temple Bar as a trade, cultural and tourism quarter. It was set up in 2003.
They come in the wake of several recent incidents which have raised concern about safety and crime in the city centre, including a widely-reported attack in Temple Bar on three English tourists visiting Dublin for a football match.
When asked about problems in the area, Mr Harte said issues with crime and anti-social behaviour are not specific to Temple Bar.
"That's a city centre problem," he said, adding that multiple addiction services for drug users are located near Temple Bar and people with drug addiction issues tend to pass through Temple Bar as a result.
"Within the two kilometres of the city centre area, there are over 14 different [addiction] service providers. You could have up to 1,400 people a day, who are very vulnerable, brought into the city centre. These are then in-turn targeted by drug gangs," Mr Harte said.
"The only way they can get those drugs is to beg, borrow, or steal," he added.
Many local business owners are concerned about the problems which were reflected in the evidence Prime Time gathered over a number of weeks during July and August in Temple Bar.
Stephen Kennedy runs two coffee shops along the Liffey quays called Copper and Straw. One branch has been open for several years and is located across the river from the Brazen Head pub, outside of Temple Bar. Another was opened in October on Aston Quay, on the river side of the Temple Bar quarter.
"You have to expect a certain amount of challenges and difficulties in a city centre location," Mr Kennedy said.
"But really what we noticed on Aston Quay was that the level and the seriousness of the anti-social behaviour and the drug-related crime was just really relentless."
"The biggest issue for us is the open drug dealing right outside the window on the corner of Aston Quay. They are dealing drugs openly all day, every day, in broad daylight. You see individuals whose lives are just absolutely ruined by their addiction to drugs. But the individuals who are dealing the drugs tend to be younger, and it's so sad."
One of the services is called The Light House. It is a charity helping people experiencing homelessness and drug addiction based on Pearse Street, a few hundred metres east of Temple Bar.
"You see a lot of young people frequenting [Temple Bar] due to the fact that there is vibrancy there," said Ger Ganley, the Operations Manager of The Light House, about the typical person who visits the area.
"On the flip side of that, a lot of people that are using the laneways are taking crack cocaine. So, you have this mixture of people that are coming into this area and that can lead to aggression."
Read more: Garda Commissioner Drew Harris speaks to Prime Time on policing issues
He says crack cocaine has become the primary drug used by many addicts in recent years and that has had a significant impact on the levels of anti-social behaviour in the city.
"[It] is a major problem because it's psychological. You are chasing the hit that you first got. So, you are wanting that hit again and again and it is a very addictive substance, so therefore it is very hard to break that addiction within somebody."
Crack cocaine is powdered cocaine which has been mixed and baked to form a hardened substance. When smoked, users experience a short, but extreme, high. The short-lived but intense effects can lead users into a cycle where they are constantly looking for ways to get their next hit.
In recent weeks, Prime Time's cameras captured drug users smoking what appeared to be crack cocaine on some of the main streets of Temple Bar.
In The Light House, individuals with drug addiction issues spoke to Prime Time about why people frequent the area.
One said: "I think Temple Bar and the whole Merchants Quay area is like a hospital for drug distribution or drug sales that brings a lot of people into that area, whether to sell or to buy."
"[You] get your dole, when the dole is gone... rob or beg or whatever you do, to get your drug. Whether you sold drugs, whether you begged for money - or some people chose to prostitute themselves - all you have to do is go to Temple Bar."
In response to queries from Prime Time, An Garda Síochána said that 2,162 searches have been conducted in the south inner-city area – in which Temple Bar is located - in the first seven months of this year. Some 47 weapons were seized and more than 4,000 people arrested for public order offences.
Garda Divisional Chief Superintendent Tony O'Donnell said that 1,252 seizures of illegal drugs took place in that period, which he attributed to an "intelligence led, high-visibility policing operation adopted within the division".
"It is our objective to provide a reassuring presence to those living, working and visiting Temple Bar and the city centre that it is safe year-round. Our presence is aimed to deter the minority that are intent on engaging in anti-social behaviour or other criminal activity in hotspot locations," he said.
"The wide range of complex social and professional dynamics to be found in Dublin City, the same as any other large urban environment, are not solely the responsibility of An Garda Síochána," Chief Superintendent O'Donnell added.
The Temple Bar area was redeveloped in the 1990s under a government-funded 'culture-led' regeneration plan. It was envisaged as - and still is considered - the cultural quarter of the city.
A tag-line sometimes referenced during the development process was 'an artist in every attic'. The intention was that people working in cultural and creative roles would live and work over vibrant restaurants and shops.
The area does remain home to various cultural and artistic organisations, including the Irish Film Institute, galleries, The Ark cultural centre, and several theatres including the Project Arts Centre.
However, in recent years some prominent residents say the benefits of living in Temple Bar have been outweighed by the social problems in the area.
"There were unsavoury activities going on," says Frank McDonald, a former head of the Temple Bar Residents' Association and former Irish Times journalist, who recently moved away from area.
"Marauding gangs of teenagers looking for trouble, junkies shooting up in side streets and back alleyways. Eventually, after 27 years of living there, it just became impossible really, and we just had to get out."
For some working in local institutions the feeling is similar.
Cliodhna Shaffrey is director of the Temple Bar Gallery and Studios, which hosts 30 art studios for upcoming Irish artists.
She says the anti-social behaviour can "overshadow" the cultural spaces in the area.
"[It] just drowns out the culture."
"There's no doubt there is a level that at several times is tipping up (into) violence. We witness it, we experience it and certainly that is one thing that really needs to be attended to."
A report by Padraig Ormsby, produced by Isabel Perceval, will be broadcast on Prime Time on Thursday August 31 at 9.35pm on RTÉ One
