The Garda Operating Model will see more front line gardaí and a stronger focus on community policing.

An Garda Síochána is going through what is thought to be its biggest ever management clear-out with around a fifth of its senior officers leaving this year.

An Garda Síochána is going through what is thought to be the biggest clear-out of senior officers in its history.

A change of mindset among Garda top brass is key if the force is to become a more community-focussed police service, better protecting areas ravaged by drugs and crime, write Security Correspondent Cormac O’Keeffe

Only a third of the country’s network of more than 560 garda stations has experienced an increase in staffing levels in the past five years, despite almost 2,800 extra gardaí joining the force over the period.

Only a third of the country’s network of over 560 Garda stations has experienced an increase in staffing levels in the past five years, despite almost 2,800 extra gardaí joining the force over the period.

In his first public comments since being appointed, Bob Collins said the authority will be “unrelenting and undeviating” in using its statutory powers to advise the minister of justice of any such danger.

Assistant Commissioner Pat Leahy said the target for local garda commanders should not be is crime up or down but “community safety”.

Fianna Faíl says it's in favour of establishing an independent pay commission for the Defence Forces and wants to restore an Army brigade which was disbanded in 2012.

The Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) has said her office could face “the most significant reorganisation of the prosecution service” since its establishment if the Government pursues a revamp of how cases are brought to court.

On Monday, a new policing plan for the future went into effect. We will now have fewer, larger Garda divisions. Six overarching regions will become four. Twenty-fourdivisions will become 19. That’s the architecture.

The gardaí announced restructuring plans today which detail improvements to its structures, processes, services and governance.

The president of the Garda Superintendents Association (GSA) Noel Cunningham said he awaits the full details of the proposed reforms, to see “the mechanics of how it will work.”

Policing is a role that involves a lot more than police forces.

“Gardaí are weary of hearing about grand ideas that don’t have the money to make them a reality,” GRA president Jim Mulligan has told Minister for Justice Charlie Flanagan.

The Policing Authority has said that An Garda Síochána is repeatedly “over-promising and under-delivering” with respect to reforming the force.

Complaints of bullying and sexual harassment by gardaí against fellow members of the force is at a seven-year high, according to figures released to the Irish Examiner.

The Garda Inspectorate has told the Policing Commission it wants the power to conduct unannounced visits at Garda stations.

Human rights officers should be appointed to every area of policing as part of a comprehensive framework to address persistent problems in An Garda Síochána.

The Department of Justice is to be split but will remain under one minister, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has confirmed.

The Policing Commission will be recommending to the Government that a body be established to implement its findings, the chair of the expert body has said.

We need to stop focusing on quick-fix solutions but instead work on reframing Irish policing to ground it in the principles of human rights, writes Liam Herrick. 

The Acting Garda Commissioner and the force's principal watchdog have clashed over where the blame lies for the scandal of 1.4 million bogus breath tests.

A Garda oversight chief has said calls to put off the appointment of a new Commissioner until a policing reform body has reported are useful.

Justice Minister Charlie Flanagan has said he wants “all the skeletons” out of the Garda cupboards.

Frontline gardaí have said the lack of members from ethnic minorities was a “pressing problem” for the organisation, and action was needed to address it.

There would be calls for the head of the Garda commissioner regardless of whether it was Nóirín O’Sullivan or someone else, the chair of the new policing commission has said.

The Commission on the Future of Policing in Ireland is holding its first meeting today.

The Tánaiste is “very disturbed” that Fianna Fáil would sack Garda Commissioner Nóirín O’Sullivan immediately if the party gains power, dubbing it “profoundly undemocratic”.

The new policing commission must be “wholly independent” of the Government and should examine the Garda’s relationship with the Department of Justice, a leading policing expert has said.