Labour Party leader Pat Rabbitte today said he will make it a "personal priority" to triple the amount of community gardaí within three years if elected to government.
Mr Rabbitte promises to increase the number of community gardaí from 500 to 1,500 by 2010.
The Labour leader was speaking at the Garda Training College in Templemore, Co. Tipperary, this afternoon where he announced the second of his five "Commitments for Change."
"Everywhere I go, people are telling me their concerns about crime and antisocial behaviour. We need more gardaí visible in communities they know, serving people they know.
"I am convinced that changes in the manning, deployment and organisation of the Garda Síochána would have a hugely positive impact on people's quality of life and on the rates of crime and anti-social behaviour," he said.
He says his party will revise Garda rostering to ensure gardaí are on the streets, create a new career structure for community gardaí within the force to ensure that community policing is respected and valued, and push the civilianisation process, so that the maximum number of gardaí are are "not in offices filling out forms".