Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, John O'Donoghue.

Track record

It took a few years in office before John O'Donoghue was able to shake off the "zero tolerance" hook that he caught himself on at the start of his anti-crime crusade.

His track record since, however, has been substantial and impressive enough to allow him to shake off attempts by a largely ineffectual opposition to damage him. Crime is down. That was the core of his prospectus and he can legitimately claim to have succeeded in his primary aim.

Like other ministers in this Government, he has benefited from the availability of extra funds. Successive strong budgets provided for the rapid expansion in the prison building programme, increasing the number of inmates from around 2,000 when he began in office to around 3,200. Thus, the "revolving door", which allowed habitual criminals to be freed on bail for prolonged periods or released after serving only a fraction of their sentence, is effectively ended. This removal of repeat offenders has had an effect on reducing crime such as burglary and robbery, gardaí generally agree.

The Criminal Assets Bureau (CAB) has continued to be a major success in attacking the wealth of organised crime. The bureau has attracted the attention and praise of police forces across the world.

The establishment of independent prisons and courts authorities significantly reduced the Department of Justice's workload and prevented the type of administrative mess that had caused controversy during the tenure of O'Donoghue's predecessor, Nora Owen.

Immigration has grown to be one of the biggest problems facing the department. Its previously tiny immigration section has grown into an entity with more than 600 staff. O'Donoghue's unprecedented raft of more than 40 Acts and Bills has included several new measures related to immigration.

Immigration has been an issue on which O'Donoghue has seemed vulnerable, particularly from the left and liberal elements in the media, which still tend to portray him as xenophobic. Much of the work done during his term in office has been an effort to catch up on provisions already existing in other EU states.

Both senior gardaí and civil servants appear generally content with the Minister's performance. The "Blue Flu" industrial trouble was settled and the Garda has grown to its largest numbers, with almost 12,000 people now in uniform.

The Minister has dealt with a number of anomalies in criminal law procedure. Certain suspects can now be held for questioning for 24 hours rather than 12. Rules about the way gardaí can gather evidence have also been reformed.

Allegations about corruption in the Garda, particularly in Co Donegal, were behind his decision to set up an independent Garda Inspectorate, which should be in place within the year. The Minister also played a key role in handling difficult security and legal aspects of the peace process in the North.

Main achievement

O'Donoghue played an important part in the creation of the Criminal Assets Bureau before coming to office and has overseen its development and expansion as Minister.

Biggest failure

The judiciary might have been nonplussed by his attempt to introduce minimum 10-year sentences for anyone caught with drugs worth more than £10,000. This would have removed the notion of mitigation. Courts have consistently ignored the legislation and imposed shorter sentences for people caught with drugs worth hundreds of thousands of euro.

Prospects

His management of this large and potentially disastrous portfolio, combined with his confident handling of the security elements of the Belfast Agreement, have guaranteed him another high-profile Cabinet position. His choice of office is not known.

Jim Cusack, Security Editor

OPPOSITION PERFORMANCE

Fine Gael

Alan Shatter

An effective performer, Shatter is sometimes handicapped by a tendency to address the Dáil as he would the courts.

In February 1998, the present Government agreed to accept a private members' Bill from Shatter granting immunity from civil liability to anyone "acting reasonably and in good faith" who reports child abuse to the authorities. He argued that fear of legal proceedings had been a major disincentive to the reporting of suspected cases of child abuse.

He has leadership ambitions, but his colleagues say he would receive little or no support within the parliamentary party.

Labour

Brendan Howlin

He is also the party's deputy leader and will be a senior minister if Labour secures power.

Last year, Howlin clashed with the Minister over the legalising of cannabis. Howlin suggested there was something "unacceptable" about criminalising people for using cannabis. O'Donoghue replied that Howlin was being "reckless and irresponsible".

Howlin is seen as one of the Labour deputies amenable to a post-election deal with Fianna Fáil.

M.O'R.