The Government is set to introduce a uniformed warden service, run by local authorities, to assist gardai. The new lower-tier force will police some traffic and parking regulations, and act as rangers in public parks.
It will provide a uniformed "visible presence" to help assure people, particularly those living in sheltered or other vulnerable forms of accommodation.
Three pilot schemes for the Community Warden Service could be in place by the end of the year. Questionnaires were sent out to a selection of city and county managers earlier this summer about the service, and their responses are due to be returned to the Department of the Environment by next week.
The responses will be evaluated by a task force in the Department, which will then decide how to implement the service.
Two pilot schemes will be put in place in rural areas and one in an urban area, possibly before the end of the year. The scheme could be fully introduced within two to three years and it is thought there will initially be only some 300 community wardens, equipped with cars and mobile communications.
According to Government sources, the scheme has the support of the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, and the Minister for the Environment, Mr Dempsey. Government sources emphasised that the service would not offer an alternative to the Garda but would act in support of the force in policing local regulations.
Talks have taken place with the Department of Justice and Garda management on the service.
It is known some senior gardai are suspicious that the new service is designed to provide an alternative policing service. There is also some concern that the credibility of the Garda Siochana was damaged in the eyes of Government during the two "blue flu" days of industrial action last year.
However, Government sources were quick to deny this, pointing out that there were references to a warden service to police local government regulations in the Government's Action Programme for the Millennium, published in 1997.