Retailers in the capital are being terrorised with threats, intimidation and assaults on a daily basis, a former senior Garda reveals today.
And as terrified workers fall victim to the attacks, more and more are leaving the sector in central Dublin sparking huge staff turnover.
Ex Garda inspector Tony Gallagher has been working with businesses to help tackle the issue since his retirement from the force in June.
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He told the Irish Mirror: “It’s about winning back the city from the minority who are making it very unpleasant.”
Mr Gallagher explained how organised beggars, addicts and gangs of youths are running riot in a situation he describes as an “epidemic”.
He has heard about terrifying ordeals and was even confronted himself after witnessing an attempted theft. Mr Gallagher said: “In one incident, a pregnant employee in the workplace was threatened by an allegedly passive beggar.
“She tried to prevent the theft but was told she would kick her unborn baby out of her stomach. When I have been in stores myself, I have already been threatened by people.
“I saw a theft occurring, brought it to the attention of the staff in the shop and the reaction was to threaten me outside by two men with physical violence. I wasn’t worried but there are those that would be.”
One bar and restaurant owner based in Dorset Street told of the issues he is facing on an “hourly basis,” most recently having the tip jar in his premises snatched. The businessman, who asked not to be named, told us: “It’s impossible.
“If I have to take an hour off and leave two girls there, I don’t feel comfortable at all. People are coming in out of their faces. It’s very hard to keep staff but I think it’s the same all over the city.”
Last Sunday, there was a fight near his property and he witnessed a man assaulting a woman before running into his shop demanding a can of coke for his “thirst”.
He eventually sold it to him because it was the only way he could get rid of him, before the thug left and went back out to rejoin the same fight again.
Mr Gallagher said: “Women came in when it was raining, drinking their cans. When I asked them to leave, they spat at me.”
On another occasion, a woman came in and started to do heroin in their toilets and it took him 45 minutes to get her to leave. He revealed begging is one of the main problems and in many cases it’s organised with gangs dropping up to 20 people at a time into the city centre every day.
Mr Gallagher said: “Begging is organised in a professional scale where people have their own patches – just like people operate in a drug patch they have the begging patches.”
He said many beggars were using the money to feed their addiction.
The former senior officer – who clocked up 39 years’ service – told how despite getting money from passing people as they sit outside shops, many still go on to steal and threaten staff.
Mr Gallagher explained: “From a public perspective, are you better served by providing them lunch rather than a €20 note?
“Because by providing them with money, they are continuously coming back to the same location and engaging in the palm peddling again. It’s a growing epidemic.”
Another factor he believes is adding to the problem is the “intensification” of hostels and methadone dispensing locations in the city centre.
He added: “People staying in the hostels are out on the street after their breakfast and they spend the whole day in the city centre.
“And that’s because we have too many hostels in the city. There’s no proportionate displacement of them in the suburbia. If you intensify it in a particular location, it’s going to get an unintended consequence which in this case is theft.”
Another area of concern is groups of teenagers descending on stores, sometimes on bikes, knocking over display stands, stealing alcohol and attacking staff.
Mr Gallagher – who now works as risk, security and event manager with Ashtree Risk Group – believes there needs to be legislation to let gardai tackle aggressive begging, which they have limited means to do so at the moment.
And he added: “I think if any of us were to walk down the national promenade of Dublin, you will certainly see people who are subject to substance abuse.
“You will certainly see aggressive begging. And that’s the norm that seems to be passively accepted. But we need to change that to bring some control. I think we need to win our city back.”
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