A spate of murders, violent deaths and vicious street assaults has ensured that crime - and the official response to it - will remain a central political feature of this election campaign.
Even before this upsurge in violence, the electorate was distressed by the growing incidence of brutal assaults, linked to the abuse of alcohol and drugs, which made the streets of many towns and cities unsafe at night. An increase in wealth and disposable income was being reflected by a rise in casual violence while the incidence of other crimes, such as robbery and burglary, fell.
The involvement by criminal gangs in carefully-arranged murders and the deaths of two members of the Garda while trying to apprehend joy-riders in Dublin simply underscore the violence of today's society. In that context, a claim by the Minister for Justice and Law Reform, Mr O'Donoghue, that the level of serious crime had fallen by ten per cent in 2001 was shrugged away as irrelevant or simply wrong.
Recognising that reality, Mr O'Donoghue, has promised the public that Fianna Fáil will now get tougher on crime and expand the strength of the Garda by a further 2,000 over five years. Other offers involve greater use of closed circuit television cameras to combat street violence and motoring offences; extra resources to deal with drug abuse; the provision of new prison places and the establishment of a Garda Inspectorate to investigate complaints.
The Progressive Democrats also want to provide an extra 2,000 Garda, but some of that increase will be composed of a Traffic Police corps. And it differs from its coalition partner in favouring the appointment of a Garda Ombudsman to investigate public complaints. Apart from that, it concentrates on the need to modify and reform criminal law, to collect fines, establish uniform guidelines for the punishment of offenders and deal with white collar crime.
Fine Gael speaks of the need to deal with the growing incidence of casual violence and its focus is on prevention, through social intervention and investment in deprived communities, closed circuit cameras and high-visibility policing. Action on corruption and fraud is also promised. The Labour Party supports a broad approach to crime prevention by investing in communities and through prison treatment/education programmes. It pays particular attention to Garda reform and advocates the establishment of a police authority and Ombudsman, along the lines of the reform programme that was initiated in Northern Ireland under the Belfast Agreement.
All parties are agreed on the need for greater community involvement in dealing with anti-social behaviour. Changes in public attitudes towards breaches of the traffic laws, under-aged drinking and a range of other offences is seen as critical if progress is to be made on the policing front. The increasing wealth of recent years has generated new concerns and fears within the electorate. In their election programmes, the political parties are responding to those anxieties in differing ways.