The murder of Mr Thomas Farrell in his Dublin home is a stark reminder of the existence within our society of a crime problem which blights and sometimes takes lives. In this instance, it has deprived a young family of their father at a time when their attention should be turning to Christmas and the celebrations associated with it.
Instead the focus is back on the challenges facing our criminal justice system and on a society which tolerates the conditions that allow violence to fester.
The series "Confronting Crime", published in The Irish Times this week, painted a picture of a low-crime society by international standards. This fact has been masked by relatively high levels of homicides and violent assaults, including sexual assaults. These, too, are low by international standards but such statistics are of little comfort to victims of crime or to their grieving families.
It is clear also that we are not under-policed or under-resourced in terms of anti-crime measures and that, as Prof Dermot Walsh pointed out, we have what is probably the harshest criminal justice regime in Europe. The reality is that we have been debating crime, on and off, for almost a decade but appear to have learned little in the process.
However, much valuable work has been done. We have set up the National Crime Council, which is carrying out serious research into the causes of crime, and has produced three reports so far. An expert group is preparing a report on crime statistics, to ensure that we have an accurate picture of trends.
We know also that poverty, social exclusion and family dysfunction are all major contributors to the problem. Children who fall into criminal behaviour before they even reach their teens are the raw material from which the career criminals of tomorrow are made.
Yet despite numerous pledges, nothing meaningful has been done to tackle these factors. It is inexplicable that politicians will sanction hundreds of millions of euro for police and for prison places but baulk at properly funding the probation service and greater social supports.
The Oireachtas Justice committee will shortly discuss crime and our responses to it. It must draw on the wealth of research and information that already exists and be prepared to change policies accordingly. There are questions to be asked about whether Garda resources are deployed most efficiently and whether the force relates effectively to the entire community. Lacunae in the criminal justice system must be addressed with urgency.
Such issues are too important for political point-scoring, and the committee must seek a consensus that will plot a real way forward, not a repetition of the failed policies of the past.
For those who have already suffered the effects of crime - especially those like Mr Farrell and his family who have paid a terrible price - it is too late for the State to render assistance. But it must do all in its power to minimise the risk of others suffering a similar fate.