There are those who claim that the incidence of crime in this jurisdiction is exaggerated out of all proportion by the media and by politicians. There are those who maintain that there is nothing in the most recent crime outbreaks to warrant any undue public concern. There are those who insist that Ireland is still, in relative terms, a safe secure place.
But those positions are becoming increasingly untenable. The high, ongoing incidence of brutal murders throughout the State is the most serious aspect of the crime problem. But it is clear that the capital and some of the larger cities are now home to gangs of ruthless and professional criminals who can match their counterparts anywhere. Drugs are big business, largely beyond the reach of the law. A night time attack on a Wicklow pub has hit the headlines only because in this instance somebody went too far and took the life of the unfortunate proprietor, Mr Tom Nevin.
The circumstances of the Wicklow murder will send a shiver down the spine of many a publican and shopkeeper around the country. In what a senior Garda officer has described as a "brutal and needless" act, Mr Nevin was shot dead at point blank range as he counted the night's takings. Reflecting on this cruelty, a Garda press officer said on radio yesterday that he was running out of words to describe such deeds. Small wonder that so many people in cashbusinesses now sleep with the shotgun beside the bed. And there is nothing to suggest that the Wicklow incident was a once off random attack: the Garda report that Dublin based gangs, numbering up to 20 members, have been active across the Leinster region seeking out supposedly easy pickings in shops, pubs, and other business premises.
Hopefully the perpetrators of Mr Nevin's murder will be apprehended. But nothing can bring him back to his sorrowing family. In time, his death will simply comprise another entry in the dreadful catalogue of crime this year. Garda resources will undoubtedly now be put into the pursuit of these brigand gangs - while the emphasis will switch from the protection of the elderly. And then, in due course, when some new twist occurs in the crime tale, the resources will be redirected once again. The public is not fooled and it is highly unlikely that the criminals are either.
It is impossible not to sympathise with the Minister, Mrs Owen, and the senior officers of the Garda who have all in their respective ways inherited a crisis which has not arisen overnight. But a start has to be made somewhere in putting the criminal justice system on a footing which is objective oriented, where activities are co ordinated to agreed ends and where full use is made of modern research facilities.
The initiative shown by the Minister in announcing the establishment of a "Crime Council" may comprise a significant step in this direction. It echoes in some respects the call made by the Garda Commissioner, Mr Patrick Culligan, for the community to engage in dialogue with the force as to what its priorities, objectives and policies ought to be. The simple adage of Sir Robert Peel, that the police are there to "protect life and property, to prevent and detect crime and to prevent nuisance and abuse in public places" was adequate to its time. But something more precise is surely required in contemporary circumstances.