The Minister for Social Welfare has accused the Progressive Democrats of "utter hypocrisy in demanding major additional spending on its anti-crime package, at the same time as advocating economic policies that would devastate social and public services and greatly worsen the crime problem".
Mr De Ross a also said the PD leader, Ms Mary Harney, made a "contemptible accusation" that Democratic Left had a "soft, criminals-are-victims" approach to crime. "Democratic Left knows all too well who the victims are, as our TDs represent constituencies that have had to endure appalling levels of crime not known in the leafy avenues of Dublin 4, where Mary Harney and Michael McDowell live."