Overtime garda funding of €10 million will see gardaí tackle street drug dealing and antisocial behaviour, following a number of serious assaults in the capital in recent weeks.

An Garda Síochána has confirmed that it has started to use the €10m overtime provided by Government for policing in Dublin in a move which it says will deliver more than 16,500 additional policing hours per month in the city centre.

In the course of Operation Citizen, there will be a strong focus by Gardaí on tackling street level drug dealing, anti-social behaviour, and seizure of alcohol in Dublin city centre following the provision of the €10m in overtime funding.

There will also be an enhanced visible Garda presence at strategic locations in Dublin city centre such as main thoroughfares and the Liffey Boardwalk.

The plan will see increased deployment of the Garda National Public Order Unit in the city centre with 20 per cent of the €10m in overtime being dedicated to providing additional public order capacity in the city centre on a daily basis.

As well as uniform Gardaí, specialist units such as the Garda Air Support Unit, the Garda Mounted Unit, the Garda Dog Unit, Regional Armed Response Units, and Road Policing Units will be deployed to enhance Garda visibility in the city centre.

There will be also be planned days of high impact visibility in the city centre involving checkpoints; execution of warrants; service of summonses; intelligence-led searches and arrests; immigration checks, and enforcement of road traffic offences. These days of high impact visibility will be replicated across the other Garda Divisions in the Dublin Metropolitan Region.

High visibility patrols on the transport network in addition to patrols in the vicinity of transport services at peak times will be maintained under Operational Saul.

"The overall objective of our activity is to reassure the citizens, visitors and the business community that Dublin is a safe place in which to live, visit, and work. An enhanced visible policing presence is central to this objective,” said Assistant Commissioner, DMR, Angela Willis.

It is expected that the overtime will result in more than 16,500 additional policing hours per month being delivered in Dublin city centre across the two Divisions.

For the whole Dublin Metropolitan Region including the city centre Divisions, the total additional policing hours per month is 48,500.

As increased Garda activity in Dublin city centre has the potential to displace criminal activity to other Divisions in the Dublin Metropolitan Region (DMR), each of the other four DMR Divisions are receiving a proportion of the additional funding. These DMR Divisions support city centre policing in a number of ways. For example, patrols on the public transport network to deal with issues at source before impacting on the city centre.

Each DMR Division is delivering an operational plan with Gardaí engaged in high visibility patrolling and enforcement activity in specific areas based on crime trends and analysis of when crimes occur. This analysis, which is compiled by the Garda Síochána Analysis Service, will be updated on a weekly basis.

DMR operational figures for week ending 20th August 2023

• Arrest = 545

• Patrols = 1667

• Incidents recorded on Pulse = 2875

• Checkpoints = 210

• Searches = 722

o Searches under Mis-use of Drugs Act = 526

o Searches of Person = 90

o Search with Warrant = 78

o Search without warrant = 28

• Value of illicit Drugs Seized = €393,095 subject to analysis

• Cash Seized = €423,203.31

