TODAY Dail Eireann will enact a number of pieces of legislation in the wake of the cold blooded assassination of Veronica Guerin. Much of the legislation in question has been prepared over a short period of time indirect response to the emergence of crime as the public's number one priority.

Unquestionably, Veronica Guerin's murder has been the catalysts for a political response to the crime issue. The danger, however, is that a response in these circumstances may not be an effective one. If legislation in itself was an adequate response to crime, then we would not have a problem.

The effectiveness of a policy response to crime should be the only benchmark on which it is judged. This is an important point and one which tends to be missed. The opposition parties in recent weeks have made hay over their declared commitment to tackling crime.

At face value, they appear to have a point. Many Bills have been published and many motions put down for debate. But the Bills on the whole have been poorly constructed and the motions used solely as an exercise in political point scoring. None of them has addressed the broader issues in the crime/drugs problem.

The recently retired Garda Commissioner, Patrick Culligan, rightly broadened the debate recently when he criticised the Departments of Health and Education for what he perceived as their failure to contribute to tackling the drugs problem.

The Minister for Education's response that more could be done and would be done was welcome. It showed a preparedness to address, the issue properly rather than the negative and defensive attitude often adopted by Government departments in response to such criticism.

I must admit, however, to beings somewhat perplexed at the Commissioner's suggestion that the emphasis on drug related crime was misplaced - an emphasis which comes from the Garda itself. Its figure, which says 80 per cent of crime in the Dublin Metropolitan Area is drug related, is fast becoming a cliche in Irish politics. My experience as a Dublin TD bears this out.

IF WE consider that there may be as many as 7,000 intravenous heroin users in Dublin, each requiring £60 a day to feed their habit, it is not difficult to imagine the huge impact that such figures have on the daily crime statistics. These figures also serve as the greatest incentive to tackle the drugs problem effectively.

It is generally accepted that every pound spent in preventing drug misuse saves society £7 in the long run. However, the slow and pains taking work needed to tackle the demand for drugs is not stuff of newspaper headlines. The Government's decision to establish a ministerial task force on demand reduction is a welcome albeit late initiative. But, politically, this has been a low priority issue.

For all their talk on justice and crime issues, neither Fianna Fail nor the PDs has recognised the importance of treatment and demand reduction measures. In Fianna Fail's case, this seems even more puzzling given that Bertie Ahern's constituency has been identified as the State's prime drugs black spot.

One of the reasons this issue has not caught the mind of politicians in the way that I believe it should is that in geographical terms the issue is confined to a small number of areas. It is predominantly a Dublin problem and specifically an urban working class problem.

Consequently, only the politicians who represent these constituencies (from all parties) are the ones to experience on a daily basis the gravity of the problem. For others, there is a tendency to hope that a few Bills passed and a few extra gardai allocated is sufficient.

My party's policy development commission recently published a document entitled The Drugs Menace and Organised Crime. In it we call for the introduction of criminal justice measures aided at targeting those responsible for the drugs trade.

The introduction of a special unit with the powers of the Revenue Commissioners and Garda to target the major drugs barons is absolutely critical. So too is fast tracking these cases through the courts and, while I support the reform of the bail laws, significance in these cases.

The section of the document dealing with the criminal justice measures necessary to tackle the drugs problem has largely been overtaken by events. However, it is important that the measures announced by the Government are co ordinated.

We would like to see a special Minister of State, answerable to Cabinet, assigned to the drugs problem. The number of gardai directly involved in combating the drugs problem is also inadequate and needs to be improved.

Some commentators have argued that one way to destroy the drugs trade in the city would be to legalise the trade. While this may have a superficial logic to it, it does not recognise the difficulties we will have in promoting in the future a drugfree culture for our young people. An easier way to reduce the demand for drugs would be to introduce treatment for those looking for it.

THERE are 1,500 treatment places available in the Eastern Health Board area, which the Government plans to increase to 2,500 by the end of the year. However, even this improved figure falls well short of the number of addicts on the streets, nor does it take into account the number of people who smoke heroin.

Improving treatment facilities not only benefits the individual involved, it also reduces the demand for drugs on the street which would reduce crime levels significantly.

I was particularly struck by one of the last interviews given by Veronica Guerin. She was asked what she would like to see done about the drugs problem. Her response was atypical of the debate that has emerged since her murder. She called for more resources to be put into the communities being ravaged by the and crime problem.

Drugs are having a devastating effect on these communities where those who seek to fight back are often subjected to intimidation. Not only are the communities being destroyed but their capacity to regenerate is being seriously undermined.

We need to take these communities back for their residents. If this costs money it is money that should be spent, something the PDs should bear in mind if they are going to be honest about tackling drug related crime.