The boundaries of the legal protection given to gardaí to disclose information to the media is expected to play a key part in determining the course of a high-profile investigation into alleged leaks.

If gardaí had access to records then the scandal may have been prevented, says Cormac O’Keeffe.

Gardaí might not have removed two children from their Roma families if they had access to health records, according to the Ombudsman for Children’s report.

Racial profiling played a major part in the Garda handling of two cases in which Roma children were wrongly removed from their parents last October because of unfounded fears that they had been abducted.