A crime reduction project which has been "spectacularly rewarding" in the Temple Bar area of Dublin is to be repeated in the business district of the north city centre.

The scheme would involve close liaison with the people living and running businesses in the area bordered by Capel Street, Marlborough Street, Parnell Street and the Liffey.

The dominant element of the scheme is the allocation of personnel to police the area and become familiar to those living and working there, according to the assistant commissioner for the Dublin metropolitan area, Mr Tom King.

Mr King yesterday addressed the annual conference of the Small Firms' Association and explained concepts which he said he believed would lead to crime reduction. Such a development would leave managers with more time to get on with managing their firms, he said.

Mr King said crime in Dublin had dropped by 10 per cent for the first five months of the year compared to the same period last year. He said syringe robberies last month were half the average they had been running at.

He told the conference that an analysis of the 4,140 arrests in Dublin last year for drug related offences found that 73 per cent of the people concerned were from council housing, that 90 per cent had left school before the age of 16, and that only 2 per cent had the Leaving Certificate.

The majority were between 15 and 17 years of age. Many had been in trouble with the law before the age of 15, so their criminal activity had preceded their drug taking. Only 2 per cent were in employment.

Mr King said there had been an "astonishing" response from people in poorer communities when the Garda had invited them to get involved in addressing the problems in their areas. These were areas commonly thought of as "tough" and "difficult" but they "are peopled by people who want what is best for their children".

"They may look like people you cannot relate to but they're fine people and when they come with you they are really with you.

The allocation of specific gardai to identified communities has meant that individual male and female gardai can now walk through areas where some years or even months ago they would not have been welcome, Mr King said.

"As a philosophy we have decided that policing in this democracy is not something we do to people but with them and for them".

He said the Garda was anxious to include the Small Firms' Association as a community and "to set up the best communication and liaison with the community possible on issues related to crime".

Working with the Departments of Health and the Environment, the garda would reduce the drugs problem.

Mr King said it was "possible to envisage a Dublin where crime is not a dominant social issue and where the climate for business is not affected by crime, and where this issue of crime is not a barrier to investment and growth in your sector".