A Safer Ireland

• More needs to be done to reform our criminal justice system to ensure it focuses more on the victims of crime and deals more effectively with violent criminals and anti-social behaviour.

What We Will Do

• Introduce a Victims of Crime Bill to give the victims of crime and/or their families more rights including the right to appeal a decision by the DPP not to prosecute, the right to be kept regularly informed on the status of a criminal investigation and the right to a say in conditions set down in parole deliberations.

• Introduce sentencing reforms to include “whole of life” sentences for the most heinous of crimes.

• The election of regional “Crime Commissioners” with powers to appoint and dismiss Assistant Commissioners and set local priorities for Gardaí.

• Increase the number of Gardaí on our streets.

• Reform the court system to end backlogs in court hearings.

• Invest in after-school and school holiday clubs to reduce anti-social behaviour.

• Reform the prison system to provide a greater focus on reducing drug abuse, innumeracy, and illiteracy, improving mental health, and preparing prisoners for work post-release in order to tackle Ireland’s high rate of recidivism

• Better protect our borders by investing in our immigration service, deporting foreign-national criminals after they have served their sentence, and placing immigration officials at major points of departure into Ireland.