THE Fine Gael leader is to unveil tough new proposals on sentencing and bail restrictions for serious repeat offenders. The plan, which will be highlighted in a €250,000 advertising campaign, will be unveiled by Enda Kenny at the party’s annual conference next weekend.

Jim O’Keeffe, Fine Gael’s justice spokesman, yesterday said he was finalising proposals with legal advisers aimed at restricting bail for repeat serious offenders and removing the “get-out clause” from mandatory minimum sentences.

“Sentences for drugs offences and the new firearms legislation are neither mandatory nor minimum,” said O’Keeffe. “The climate has tightened up but the ‘exceptional circumstances’ clause means that offenders in roughly 80% of cases are still getting less than the mandatory minimum sentence.

“We want to tighten that to ensure someone who has reoffended has to get the full mandatory minimum sentence.”

Proposals to restrict bail will prove more controversial, and the party leadership was still taking legal advice last week.

Fine Gael is also expected to propose giving the state a right of appeal against court decisions to grant bail. The party will move to restrict or eliminate the entitlement to bail for repeat offenders charged with murder, rape, serious violence or drug dealing.

“It is ludicrous that serious criminals can get bail,” said O’Keeffe. “They should be in a different category from somebody coming with clean hands into a bail application.”

Dr Liam Twomey, the party’s health spokesman, is also expected to unveil proposals on expanding the provision of primary healthcare by GPs, in order to take the pressure off hospital A&E units.

“These are the issues that are resonating with the people; fellas going out and reoffending, or families who can’t get a hospital bed for their elderly mothers,” said a party figure.

“The government has failed to deliver in these areas. We are highlighting that, but we’re proposing solutions as well.”

Enda Kenny launched a Fine Gael advertising campaign last week targeting the government’s record on crime, health and “the waste of public money”. Running on 120 billboards, 100 bus shelters and 250 smaller posters the advertisements attack government performance on the A&E crisis and “wasted” spending.

One poster bears the image of a frightened mother clutching a baby beneath the slogan: “I work hard for a secure future for my kids but I don’t feel safe in my own home”.

After the party conference this weekend, the billboards and posters will switch to new ads featuring Kenny recommending solutions to the problems raised in the first phase of the campaign. The party will follow up with a series of public meetings on crime and healthcare. There will also be a nationwide leaflet drop.

The tough law and order approach is less likely to rankle with its preferred coalition partners, Labour, than in previous years.

Pat Rabbitte, the Labour leader, has moved the party closer to Tony Blair’s “tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime” policy than Labour’s traditionally sceptical position on tougher sentencing or stronger garda powers.

Notably, he broadly supported Michael McDowell’s proposals for anti-social behaviour orders and disagreed publicly with calls from Joe Costello, his former justice spokesman, for McDowell to resign after the riots sparked by the Love Ulster rally last February.

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