THE hut dwellers in Killinarden, west Tallaght, say they are not for moving.

The anti drug residents say they will wait to see what comes of the Garda's anti drug initiative, Operation Dochas (Hope), before they consider dismantling their makeshift observation posts. In a large metal hut in Killinarden, local people are preparing to fit insulation for the winter evenings.

While some anti drug protesters cynically describe the force's initiative, which started last Monday, as "Operation Jokas", Tallaght residents welcome the move to increase the uniformed Garda presence on the streets.

About 24 uniformed guards and four sergeants have been redeployed in Tallaght under the initiative. They are concentrated in Killinarden, Fettercairn and Jobstown where there are about 400 drug dealers.

Garda patrols and road checks are accompanied by intensified covert operations by plainclothes officers and the local drug unit. Gardai continue to meet community groups.

In the past four days, the drug unit has carried out four searches and arrested and charged six alleged drug dealers in the area. Drugs worth about £1,000 have been recovered. From September - 1995 to September 1996, £111,000 worth of drugs were seized in the area.

The officers - some of whom have returned from BSE duty on the Border - work shifts from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and 6 p.m. to 2 a.m. On a night shift earlier in the week, two gardai in junior service patrolling the estates in Fettercairn were trailed by a pack of curious youths.

In Glenshane Drive, they passed a crude chipwood and metal grille look out hut and chatted to Ms Mary Dunbar who has helped staff it since February.

"I don't think the guards have a notion what's going on," said Ms Dunbar. "It's grand to see them in here but I don't think the police is going to stop anything that's going on.

Ms Dunbar's but is the only one left in Fettercairn. As the officers patrol the sprawling estates, they point out the remains of the others. Residents say they have now turned to patrolling the streets and nearby fields to where some dealing has shifted.

The problem has not gone away, they say. Only the "flocks" of buyers in taxis and cars have stopped.

In the Knockmore estate in Killinarden, women drinking tea in a hut said the gardai were "going to have to get to know us and we are going to have to get to know them before there's any trust".

Gardai acknowledged that the success of the operation in west Tallaght would inevitably be to the detriment of other areas. Already, the dealers have started moving to other parts of east Tallaght such as Tymon North.

Operation, Dochas, says Insp Declan O Brien from Tallaght Garda station, will move with them.

At the operation's launch on Monday, the assistant Garda commissioner, Mr Tom King, asserted that the only patrols he would like to see in Dublin by Christmas are Garda ones.

But few locals in Tallaght are convinced that Garda patrols mean their vigils are no longer needed. "That's fine for them to say, they don't want the likes of us but we have to live here", said one woman.