Both emotions have evidently surfaced in research by the party. As a result, recent policy and advertising is designed to get a piece of the action.

Take the poster campaign that kicked off a few weeks ago. The first image was of a young woman. She is holding a child in her arms. Her eyes are wide with fear. "I work hard for a secure future for my kids, but I don't feel safe in my own home, " reads the legend. The message is clear.

The streets are awash with crime. Lock up your daughters and barricade the door.

Why would the poor woman be so afraid in a country that has one of the lowest crime rates in Europe? Last year, there was a 3% increase in crime to 101,712 headline incidents, at a time when the population increase was closer to 5%. A similar scenario prevailed the previous year. In the two preceding years, crime fell.

The real measure of crime is incidence per head of population. Last year, it was 24 per 1,000. The figure 10 years ago was 29. Where is all this crime Fine Gael is trumpeting?

Of course, it is the fear of crime that sheriff Kenny and his deputies are hoping to exploit. That this fear is largely based on misinformation and exploitation is irrelevant. Pandering is the name of the game.

There are other reasons why fear is popping up in FG's . . . and other parties' . . .

research. Hysterical media coverage has some believing that law and order has broken down. There is also the fear experienced by the newly affluent that they have something to lose; that their stake in the societal order is now more precious; that what is required is the authorities come down harder on anybody from the lower orders even suspected of criminal activity.

Which brings us the follow-up poster campaign.

In this, Enda has replaced the terrified young mother.

The Four Courts provide the backdrop as Enda looks out . . .

his face a crooked grin away from a walk-on part in Father Ted . . . and declares:

"I'll make the criminals pay for their crime."

This panders to the belief that the criminal justice system is not functioning properly. Judges, apparently, display a cultural leniency towards criminals. These judges, for the most part, attended fee-paying schools and, before appointment to the bench, were associated with one of the main political parties. Yet now, according to received wisdom, they have a special affinity with hardened criminals, at the expense of victims and wider society.

The hokum is exploited by the media and politicians, and informs the ridiculous policies unveiled by FG last week. High-profile cases where the conviction or sentence doesn't offer the result hob lawyers believe to be the correct one, are often used to pump up the volume. Statistics are massaged and spun.

The current manufactured crisis surrounds bail.

We are told that 5,600 offences were committed last year by people on bail.

This supposedly illustrates how the system is breaking down. There is no information as to how many of these offences could have been reasonably predicted when bail was granted. Nothing on how many cases gardai objected to bail, and on what basis. Nothing on the average length of time a suspect was bailed. Nothing that would provide more light than heat. Kenny is promising a new Bail Act when he hasn't a clue whether the current one is operating properly.

En route, he is scaring the living daylights out of people . . . mostly the elderly and vulnerable . . . and offering a repository for misdirected anger, an outlet for a growing desire in some quarters for retribution. Enda, bless his cotton socks, is trying to cut it as a tough guy. Whatever about fear and anger, smell the desperation.