Gardaí have insisted the city is safe despite the perception of ‘no-go’ areas.

In response to a pattern of criminal activity on the east of the city, Chief Superintendent Gerry Roche said they decided to convene a Garda taskforce and over the last two months, officers had detected 75 incidents of wrongdoing.

Operation Sage Swan has involved dedicated Gardaí mounting extra patrols and carrying out increased checkpoints across the eastern suburbs since the beginning of February.

East Area City Councillors were told that so far there have been 22 cases of drugs possession, eight people charged with drugs supply, 11 incidents of driving while under the influence of drink or drugs, three people charged with possession of offensive weapons, three incidents of public order and a total of 28 vehicles seized.

“I hope you’ve noticed all that extra activity,” he remarked at the meeting.

“We’ll see if we can continue at that level or if it will settle down.”

He said there were four high-level criminal investigations ongoing in relation to drug dealing and feuds, and there had been multiple arrests, with people facing charges such as possession of firearms, arson, assaults and intimidation.

Asked why there were not more Garda patrols in parts of Ballybane which had become a ‘no-go’ area at night, the Chief Superintendent said people could not see Gardaí in undercover cars in the winter months. He had put extra resources into community policing and any chance they got, the officers were out patrolling the streets.

Cathaoirleach of the East Area City Council Committee, Cllr Shane Forde (FG), said a lot of people like him, aged in their 40s, did not feel safe anymore in Galway City.

He asked Chief Supt Roche about the possibility of deploying a mobile public order unit in the centre to deter anti-social behaviour at weekends, which was a feature of many European tourist hotspots during the summer months.

Superintendent Paudie O’Shea, in charge of Galway City Community Engagement, said the force was spending money on overtime to maintain a highly visible presence in areas of high footfall such as Eyre Square and the Spanish Arch. There was a new community engagement plan in place and he had applied for a national unit to be deployed to Galway on very busy long weekends.

Chief Supt Roche said Galway was unique in attracting huge numbers but having low levels of crime.

“Galway is a very safe city. Again, the perception of crime can be absolutely diluted, because it isn’t there. Last weekend, we had one or two assaults out of the blue, but in comparison to other cities, two assaults in a city of 75,000 [people] with thousands more visiting and 45,000 students – I’ve been to very, very many places and people ask, ‘what is your murder rate?’, I reply we don’t have one.

Pictured: Chief Supt Gerry Roche: the reality was that almost all new recruits were being sent to Dublin.