Dr. Johnny Connolly:

I read a book a while ago on the late Tony Gregory. With regard to the nature of violence, when the drug trade, particularly the heroin trade, emerged in the 1980s, there was fear, and one of the reasons for this fear was the fact that armed criminals were moving from other types of crime such as robbery into the drug trade. That immediately brought with it the potential for violence. It was violence that was confined within the drug trade itself - what we refer to as systemic violence.

I was an adviser in the establishment of the community policing forum and in 2001, I conducted a survey on fear of reprisals, which was a major issue at the time. The first meeting of the community policing forum was in January 2000 or 2001. Before that, we had distributed 3,000 leaflets and held 57 local meetings just to get people to come to Store Street Garda station for one meeting. A huge amount of work was required in the local community, much of it trying to engage with the fear that existed. There was cynicism and poor relations, but also a great deal of fear.

Around 2005, the National Advisory Committee on Drugs did a community study which identified the increasing number of young people involved in drugs. This may have brought higher levels of violence, as young people were trying to show off to older people. It also showed the impact beyond those involved in the drug trade in terms of debts. This was a new departure in that the violence was no longer confined to those buying and selling drugs but was impacting on their families. In 2009, the National Family Support Network heard about this and conducted a very detailed study with project workers. Again, they could not speak to the people who were victims of this, but they talked to people involved in various projects with which they were associated. The study showed very serious levels of violence, from petty violence and controlled intimidation to serious sexual assault and murder. Much of the violence was directed in particular against the mothers of drug users. The study showed the impact this was having on the families, not just economically but on relationships within families. For example, a drug user's mother might be trying to deal with a debt without the father knowing. This issue was largely hidden.

This issue of drug debts has become more serious. During the Celtic tiger era, as in the legitimate economy, there was a lot of credit floating around. There was a huge increase in the availability and consumption of cocaine, which was no longer a rich man's drug but was used across the social strata, as shown by much research. There was much disposable income and many people willing to give drugs on credit. The economic crash also had an impact on the illicit economy. The credit dried up and people wanted to recoup debts from anyone they could - the user, or anybody in their family who was working, such as their grandparents. If the dealers managed to get money from somebody, that person was seen as a soft touch, and then it became about extortion. It was no longer about the original debt, or the debt was increased. With younger people involved, there is a willingness to threaten very serious levels of violence for relatively small amounts of money, such as €100. Given that a gram of cannabis herb costs €12, a young person can get into €100 of debt over a weekend without realising, until the Monday, that he or she has to pay for the drugs that he or she thought had been given for nothing.

The nature of this violence and the fear it engenders are different. While we often hear about gangland crime and we constantly read about it in the newspapers, people generally do not make a connection with it. Somebody who reads about a person who lives around the corner or in the next estate being shot is very likely to know or be indirectly related to either the victim or the perpetrator. The impact of this death is far greater on such a person than on a person who lives in a middle-class area that does not have an active drug market. If an individual who is associated with the person who carried out the shooting threatens another person, knocks on his door or says in a pub that his son owes money, the person will pay up because it is a real threat. This is how I analyse the fear of reprisals.

Fear of reprisals was a serious issue for many people involved with the community policing forum in the north inner city, and Ms Metcalfe is the best person to testify about this. Much of the forum's success was based around the fact that she was trusted, the involvement of people such as the late Tony Gregory, the engagement of very senior gardaí and the way people said it was not a talking shop but would get real results which would be measured and evaluated. People believed they were engaged in something that might make a difference. Ms Metcalfe did not mention that it was resourced. Ms Metcalfe works with two other people. It takes resources to engage at that local level and it is the only initiative of its kind that has such a resource structure in place.