People in Limerick are more worried about street crime than gangland feuds and they want to see tougher criminal sentences and more gardaí on the beat, according to a Fine Gael survey.
Six out of 10 respondents to the survey, which was compiled by local TD and former minister for justice Michael Noonan, said they were most worried about anti-social behaviour and petty crime.
The former Fine Gael leader said he launched the crime study in which 20,000 questionnaires were distributed to households in the greater Limerick urban area in January. They had a detailed list of 40 questions on aspects of crime.
Nearly 1,000 responses were returned.
More than 90 per cent of people surveyed said they were afraid of being attacked and 38 per cent replied that members of their family had been victims of crime in the previous two years.
Some 98 per cent of respondents believed that Limerick needed more gardaí on the streets, while 28 per cent said they had never seen a garda in their neighbourhood.
Despite the increase in activities of feuding gangs in Limerick, only 26 per cent were very concerned about gangland crime,
Mr Noonan said there were serious questions for the Garda.
A very high percentage wanted gardaí to be on foot patrol rather than patrolling in squad cars.
In response to the question of when they had last seen a garda in their neighbourhood, only 6 per cent said they had seen a garda in the last week, 16 per cent in the last month, 50 per cent in the last year and 28 per cent never.
Mr Noonan said that at the same time, confidence in An Garda Síochána was quite high, with 40 per cent of people confident that gardaí were able to combat crime.
However, at only 16 per cent, there was little confidence in the courts. Some 90 per cent believed sentences were too lenient and 84 per cent believed mandatory minimum sentences should be imposed to take away the discretion judges have in deciding time to be served.
The report also found 96 per cent believed young offenders should be subject to a curfew; 90 per cent believed parents should be fined for offences committed by their children; 64 per cent said electronic tagging should be used as a substitute to prison and 100 per cent said sentences for rape should be increased.
Mr Noonan said he was particularly surprised at the strength of the response of those in favour of restoring capital punishment for the murder of members of the security forces.
Nearly two-thirds of those surveyed indicated that they would support the reintroduction of the death penalty for this.
"The controversy about the release of those convicted of the killing of the late Det Garda Jerry McCabe probably influenced this response," he said.
Mr Noonan said he wanted a public debate to come out of the survey and wanted the Department of Justice to examine it and to carry out a national survey.