Labour has pledged to build a new relationship between the Garda and the public to repair the damage to the force caused by the "questionable activities" of a minority of gardaí.
The party's justice spokesman, Mr Brendan Howlin, said yesterday that his party would introduce an independent Garda Ombudsman to deal with complaints and set up local crime committees to "reconnect" communities to the force.
Recent controversies and the perceived failure of the force to respond adequately to the level of crime had made major reform necessary, he said.
Strong measures against so-called joyriding, a new Public Order Bill to deal with street violence, night courts, curfews on offenders and higher sentences for drink-related violent offences are among the measures proposed by the party yesterday.
Publishing the section of Labour's manifesto on crime, Mr M Howlin said there were those who would portray his party as "soft" on crime.
"The Minister for Justice called me a wimp recently because we don't see the issue as one-dimensional or simplistic", he said.
Tackling the causes of crime, such as ending poverty and educational disadvantage, was equally important to criminal justice measures, he said. In addition imprisonment should be rehabilitative, "not just throwing offenders into a warehouse where they can perfect their criminal methods".
He maintained that the Labour Party was more in touch with the communities affected by crime than was any other party, saying: "We are determined to make communities safer."
He quoted a statement from the Minister for Justice, Mr O'Donoghue, shortly after he came into office in 1997:
"The final test of whether [the Government's] crime strategy was or was not implemented will be this: whether the people, following the completion of the term of office of this Government, feel safer in their homes."
Mr Howlin said that a recent IMS opinion poll carried in the Sunday Independent had shown that 71 per cent of people now felt more likely to be a victim of crime than they had five years ago.
"By the test he set for himself in November 1997, Minister O'Donoghue has been a failure," he said.
"John O'Donoghue has held the office of Minister for Justice in themost favourable circumstances possible. He has been able to serve a full five-year period in office. He has had financial resources that were available to no other minister.
"Unlike every other minister for justice in the past 30 years he has not had to devote a huge amount of time and Garda resources to combating the spillover from violence in Northern Ireland.
"He has no excuses for his failure to live up to the lavish promises he made in opposition and on taking office."
Labour also proposes to review the liquor licensing laws and planning laws relating to late-night fast-food outlets, fund local authorities to set up closed-circuit TV systems to combat street crime and insist on a Garda improvement in attendance at burgled premises.
The party is also promising a charter of rights for victims; and proceeds-of-corruption legislation as well as a new proceeds-of-corruption recovery agency.
In terms of illegal drugs the party promises to "continue strong criminal justice measures" but it also says it will guarantee treatment and rehabilitation for addicts, and this will be an integral part of the post-conviction justice process.