The deal with Gregory

TD Watch: Tony Gregory is famous for securing massive investment for the inner city. But the TDinflux of comfortable, middle-class voters in his constituency may cause him problems at the next General Election, writes Mary Regan

From his office on the sixth floor in Leinster House, Tony Gregory can keep an eye on his constituency of Dublin Central. From his desk, there is a magnificent view of the city, which he says has changed almost beyond recognition since he was first elected to represent its inhabitants 23 years ago. "I have to look through the cranes to see any of it now," he says, resenting the massive development that has taken place without consultation with local communities.

"There is huge development going on in the city, and local communities are being left without any say or involvement in it," he says. Gregory recently led a campaign against a development at Spencer Dock, which was the biggest planning application ever lodged in the history of the State. Now, he is involved in a similar campaign against the construction of an eight-storey apartment block in Cabra, which the majority of locals object to. "It's not that people are against development," he says "they just want their concerns and views addressed in any developments going up around them."

Ironically, his first experience as a political activist was concerned with the lack of development in the city. "In the mid-1970s, people were living in Georgian tenements, and flat complexes built in the 1930s and 1940s. They didn't even have washing facilities." He says "it's hard to think that we've come to a situation now where ultra-modern developments are sprouting up all over the place, and people don't even have a say in how that development is happening."

Gregory, who was then a secondary school teacher, became a campaigner on housing and educational disadvantage in the mid-1970s. He was elected to Dublin Corporation in 1979 and to the Dáil three years later. He made an immediate impact on national politics by holding the balance of power and supporting Charles Haughey's nomination for Taoiseach in return for massive investment in the inner city from the incoming Fianna Fáil government. This became known as the "Gregory deal".

He also generated a lot of attention by being the first TD to break the Dáil's strict dress code by refusing to wear a tie. He remembers being inundated with letters and phone calls urging him to stand his ground and represent his working class constituents by dressing as they would. Years later, when he became the only TD to feature as a character in a Hollywood blockbuster, the makers of Veronica Guerin depicted him as a tie-wearing politician.

But his political style has been far from casual. As well as housing and education disadvantage, he has highlighted problems of chronic unemployment and drug abuse in the inner city. He was elected at a time when the drugs scene was just starting in Dublin, and became involved in the many campaigns against the dealing of heroin.

Now, in the same area where heroin came into the city, crack cocaine is appearing on the streets, something he says "has frightening potential". In the past few months, gardaí have seized the substance in five or six locations his constituency. He says "if you look at what has happened to some American and British cities following the introduction of crack cocaine, it's something that requires huge attention from everyone involved."

But Gregory believes that, because of the level of anti-drugs campaigns that have taken place here since heroin first became available, the problem of crack cocaine will not be as bad: "People are now more educated about the different types of drugs. Back in the 1980s, young teenagers started on heroin in ignorance of what heroin would lead them into. Now young people, even in the most disadvantaged of areas, are more aware of the dangers of something like crack cocaine."

Gregory's constituency, which also includes the Taoiseach, is likely to become the most competitive in the country in the next election. There are rumours that Sinn Féin's Mary Lou McDonald and Patricia McKenna of the Greens are planning to contest a seat there. With more and more young, professional and middle-class voters moving into the traditionally left-oriented constituency, the working-class hero's job may be over.