Almost six weeks after the Government took office, there is still no sign of the "zero tolerance" crime policy which was a central plank of Fianna Fail's general election campaign. No instructions have been received by gardai about the policy, which was to have been implemented as soon as the party came to power.
A spokesman for the Minister for Justice, Mr O'Donoghue, said there was a lot of work under way "behind the scenes" but the Minister was not yet in a position to announce any specific plans.
In the closing days of the general election campaign the Fianna Fail leader, Mr Ahern, said: "The implementation of the policy will start from the day on which Fianna Fail forms the next government.
"The Irish people want a government which will take action against crime. I believe the Irish people are as opposed to the concept of an `acceptable' or `tolerable' level of crime as I am. I believe that they want to see a policy of zero tolerance implemented." Fianna Fail's presence in government will be felt at once." Some senior Garda officers are privately relieved that so far there has been no attempt to implement zero tolerance. The basis of the policy, credited with dramatic reductions in crime in New York and other US cities, is that lesser offences lead to larger ones and cracking down on all small crimes can reduce the level of serious crime.
When Fianna Fail proposed the concept it was not welcomed by the Garda Commissioner, Mr Pat Byrne, who suggested that it could mean jailing "beggars and buskers and people who don't pay their fares on the bus".
Last March Mr O'Donoghue, then Fianna Fail's justice spokesman, rejected the Commissioner's interpretation and said no new laws would needed to implement the plan.
Shortly before election day Mr Ahern refined the policy by saying it would first be implemented against drug-dealers. "The day on which a Fianna Fail-led government takes office is the day on which the policy of zero tolerance will be implemented against drug-dealers," he said. The party would "launch an offensive" against drug-dealers.