THE Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors and the Prison Officers' Association have joined senior politicians in urging a Yes vote in tomorrow's referendum to amend the bail laws.
"We are faced with a large criminal class which has been growing in confidence for many years as a result of our chaotic criminal justice system," the president of the AGSI, Mr John Durcan, said in a statement.
The murder of Veronica Guerin was a stark illustration that criminals felt they could get away with anything. "There are many reasons for this `untouchable' feeling, but a major factor has been the bail situation. Ruthless, hardened repeat criminals are walking free from our courts on a daily basis, to continue their crime careers and to build up a nest egg during a time on holiday granted by the State," Mr Durcan said.
Mr Tom Hoare, spokesman for the prison officers, said they knew from experience how criminals used the present bail system to commit further crimes. While there was a "real problem" with cell space, this could be rectified by extra resources. "If even one victim can be spared the trauma of crime because of the changes, the union believes this referendum should be passed."
The Progressive Democrats leader, Ms Mary Harney, said opponents of the amendment were "peddling a series of falsehoods and half-truths to the Irish people". A Yes vote was "a vote for common sense and for the reestablishment in Ireland of a sensible law on bail".
She said the presumption of innocence was no more affected by the proposed changes than by the laws of any other liberal democracy. The point that prison accommodation was inadequate was an argument in favour of more prison accommodation rather than an argument in favour of the continuance of lax bail laws
The Minister for Agriculture Mr Yates, told a press conference in Dublin that he was "quite amazed" that during the last 10 days of the referendum campaign there had been no revival of the public mood which existed when there was a wave of attacks on the elderly.
"How quickly we seem to have forgotten about the cigarette burns, people terrorised out of their life. We all know it's a fact of rural life that people lock up their homes, imprisoning themselves, from about 4 p.m. in the evening because of fear," Mr Yates said.
The Labour Party Minister of State, Ms Joan Burton, said it was "time people got real about some of the realities of crime in modern Ireland". The amendment was "a measured response to a serious problem".
The Democratic Left leader and Minister for Social Welfare, Mr De Rossa, told his party's final campaign press conference he was confident the amendment would be carried.
"The feedback that we're getting from the ground is that there is a determination that it should be passed. Certainly in the constituencies that we represent there is a feeling amongst people on the ground that there is a lack of balance in the way that criminals or offenders or people who are charged are treated in the courts, as against victims of crime," Mr De Rossa said.
The director of the Democratic Left campaign, the Minister of State, Mr Eamon Gilmore, responding to what he said was "a very understandable concern" that people charged with minor offences would be refused bail, said this could only happen where a serious offence was in question.