Crime: A dedicated corps of community gardaí should work with the public to give hope back to blighted communities and give them security and peace, senator Joanna Tuffy, a candidate in Dublin Mid-West said.
The model proposed by the party would give far greater involvement to the community. It wanted to see the establishment of community policing.
"We have got to start treating community policing as a core specialism in itself. We need gardaí who are committed to it, who want and are allowed to devote themselves to it," she said.
Ms Tuffy added that a new rank of community officer.
Jimmy McGarry, a candidate for Sligo-North Leitrim, said gardaí should be on the streets and away from desks. There was petty crime and vandalism and at the other end of the scale, there were the murderous activity of drug-fuelled gun gangs which last year claimed the lives of almost 20 victims.
"My proposal is simple: to get the maximum number of gardaí out from behind their desks and on the streets. There are hundreds of gardaí still doing duties that could and should be done by civilian workers," he said.
Councillor Eric Byrne, candidate for Dublin South Central, said money seized from the Criminal Assets Bureau should be used to address the drugs problem that continued to haunt local communities.
"The money would help undo the damage done by the drug dealers and other criminals and should be used to help finance projects in disadvantaged areas that would address the causes of crime," he said.