A "CRIME council" involving statutory and voluntary agencies, businesses, gardai and other groups interested in crime policy is to be set up by the Minister for Justice, Mrs Owen.
The Minister said yesterday the council would be modelled on similar initiatives in other countries and should be established "in the near future". A Department of Justice spokesperson said that this meant "within a matter of months".
The move is a response from the Minister to calls for a more organised approach to crime policy and for an examination of the causes of crime as well as attempts to deal with its effects.
Mrs Owen said she had been "examining ways to bring together the statutory and voluntary agencies along with the business community, the trade unions, professions and other community interests so as to facilitate broadly based and well informed discussions on crime issues as an aid to policy formulation on the subject".
The Fianna Fail spokesman on justice, Mr John O'Donoghue TD, said he welcomed any effort to involve the community in crime policy. But he added that unless the Minister provided new prison spaces and maintained the size of the Garda any such initiative would be "a cosmetic exercise".
The Minister said she had been looking at the type of structures in place in other jurisdictions, particularly in Denmark, where a broadly based council consisting of a wide range of interests has been in existence for some time.
"I have received submissions already from groups spanning business, rural communities and women's organisations who are interested in crime policy", she said.
The Department said the structure of the proposed council had not yet been decided.
The Minister's statement follows months of criticism of the Government's response to crime, which critics say has been focused on short term measures aimed at particular events such as the spate of attacks on elderly people living in rural areas.
The Crime Prevention Council in Denmark, suggested as a model by the Minister, has a budget of £500,000 a year, made up of £400,000 from the state and the rest from the private sector. It targets young offenders and problem areas", particularly in cities, and creates "diversionary projects" such as motorcycle repair shops to try to steer adolescents away from crime.
The Danish model was examined in an interdepartmental report on "Crime and Urban Disorder" in 1992. That study also, reviewed the Safer Cities Programme in Britain, which similarly involves social workers in diverting potential young offenders from crime.