The programme will explore public attitudes to sentencing in the courts system by analysing three actual cases that have been heard in Irish courts.

In conjunction with TNS MRBI, Prime Time gave an audience of 103 people some details about each crime and court case before polling them to get their opinions on an appropriate sentence for the perpetrator.

They continued by giving the audience more specific details on the most salient aspects of the case . . . including the re-enactment of one case . . . and polling them afterwards to see if their opinions on sentencing had changed.

Prime Time producer Paul Loughlin said: "Tuesday's programme is part of our crime week. We have already devoted a week to the issue of health and we plan to have a look at quality of life before the election as these are major election issues.

"This is the first time a system called 'deliberative polling' has been used on Irish television. We wanted to look at the issues between what the public want from the courts, what the political system wishes to deliver, and what actually represents justice.

"While this is not a national opinion poll as it is too small, it is a very good indicator of public opinion on sentencing."

Even though Prime Time's programme has been in production for some time, the audience poll was filmed last week in the wake of recent controversy over Justice Paul Carney giving Adam Keane a three-year suspended sentence for the rape of Ennis woman Mary Shannon.

"It was incredible that the controversy over the rape case broke just before we conducted our poll, " said Loughlin. "The issue was raised by the audience during the course of the poll."

Professor Mike Hough, director of the institute for criminal policy research at King's College London, acted as an adviser to RTE on the making of Tuesday's programme.

"It is really innovative for RTE to use a deliberative poll, " said Hough. "It is intelligent to try and get behind public opinion to see if they change their minds as they are given more details about a case.

"Polls like this attempt to get a more textured version of public opinion than headline polls. By giving them more time to think, you end up getting a much more valid opinion."

Deliberative polling is used extensively on American television, and it was also used on one occasion in the UK in the mid-1990s.

"Deliberative polls tend to find that when people are given more information about cases, they become more liberal in their views, " Hough said.

Loughlin confirmed to the Sunday Tribune that a significant number of the studio audience changed their minds on sentencing when the full facts of a case were known. Some looked for a sentence increase, while others looked for more leniency.