More than 20 people have appeared before Dublin District Court charged with drug dealing offences.

They were arrested as part of a garda operation to clean up the streets of south inner-city Dublin.

Similar operations in Cork and Wexford resulted in over 30 arrests.

'Operation Tempest' was born in January of last year after gardaí asked those living in Dublin's north inner-city what their main concerns were.

Open drug dealing in their communities was an issue that kept coming up and gardaí responded by putting an undercover operation in place.

Following on from its success, a second phase was rolled out in the south inner-city of the capital.

After six months of police work, gardaí made 26 arrests following raids over a two day period earlier this week.

The majority of those appeared before Dublin District Court today. Two were brought into court in custody, while the others appeared on bail.

One man did not turn up and a bench warrant was issued for his arrest.

Most are aged in their early 20s and unemployed.

One suspect is a juvenile and he appeared before the Children’s Court earlier, while another was brought before Cloverhill District Court.