The Policing Authority has said that “getting to the bottom” of the breath test scandal and the homicide controversy has consumed an “inordinate” amount of its time.

In a fresh twist in the Garda breath test saga, chief superintendents are challenging moves by acting commissioner Dónall Ó Cualáin that they see as unfairly tarnishing them.

Public fractures have opened up in the Garda frontline with rank and file members and their supervisors at sharp odds over the breath test scandal.

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has said he is disappointed that rank and file gardai have rejected the findings of a report into the breath test scandal.

Mid-ranking gardaí have issued stinging criticism of Commissioner Nóirín O’Sullivan, accusing her of breaching due process in ascribing “incompetence or deception” towards gardaí for the breath test scandal.