The tax package announced by Taoiseach Bertie Ahern at his party's ardfheis last night will carry a net cost of about 4bn over the lifetime of the next government.

The Fianna Fail plan includes a two-point reduction in the lower income-tax rate from 20% to 18% and a one-point reduction in the higher rate from 41% to 40%. The proposal matches the lowerrate reduction promised by Labour but stops short of matching the higher rate cuts favoured by Fianna Fail's current coalition partners, the PDs.

Fianna Fail is also promising to halve the PRSI rate for employees from 4% to 2%, with PRSI for the self-employed to fall from 3% to 2%. In addition, the package includes a pledge to index-link tax bands and credits. The moves will see most people on annual incomes below 200,000 paying less tax but the PRSI changes will hit wealthy individuals hardest.

In his leader's speech at Citywest last night, Ahern set out a tough policy on crime with a promise of mandatory drug tests for all new prisoners. "Prison should not be time off. It should be for work and for training so that when a sentence is complete, a productive life can begin, " he said.

With a pledge to recruit 2,000 extra gardai, Ahern said they would be "on the beat to strengthen communities and to deliver safer streets".

He said if Fianna Fail was back in government the party would introduce a new community payback scheme "requiring offenders to perform real services for the communities they have harmed".

The party's election theme, Next Step Forward, will also include increased fines and penalties for alcohol-related disorder and for supplying alcohol to minors. It would also legislate for mandatory jail terms for violent unprovoked street assaults.