NATIONAL HOTLINE AIMS TO COMBAT DRUG DEALING

A NATIONAL hotline to combat drug dealing is to be rolled out across
the country from this autumn.

The confidential phoneline is aimed at providing "intimidated
communities" a safe way to pass on information anonymously about
drug dealing in their areas, and indirectly, to gardai.

The national programme is based on the success of two local
initiatives in Dublin (in Blanchardstown and the north-inner city)
which have assisted Garda inquiries, leading to the arrest of
suspected dealers.

The joint effort by the National Drugs Strategy Team (NDST) and the
Garda has received funding of E350,000 from the Dormant Accounts
Fund and the Department of Justice.

"A big factor in communities is intimidation, communities feel that
there's very little that can be done to respond," said Aoife Davy,
acting director of the NDST. "This is very useful for communities to
get involved in a safe way and they can see something out of it. It
also builds on the link between communities and gardai, which is a
very important part of the National Drugs Strategy."

She said it would work the same way as the Blanchardstown model,
with an independent call centre taking phone calls from the public.
It, in turn, would send reports to the relevant Garda station.

An evaluation of the Blanchardstown project, published in November
2006, found that one in four calls to the helpline provided useful
information to gardai. Nearly a fifth of reports sent to the local
station resulted in arrests and prosecution.

The national programme was announced last week in the Dail by
Minister of State at the Department of Justice Barry Andrews.

Ms Davy said the programme would be done on a rolling basis and they
would learn as they went along. She said that a management company
would be the central agency for the programme and the contract for
this would be signed next week. She said there would be a single
phone number for all task forces areas involved.