The number of people who have applied to be Garda Commissioner is being kept under wraps.

The composition of a powerful interview panel tasked with selecting the next garda commissioner is being kept largely under wraps.

The timeline for the selection of the new Garda commissioner is “up in the air”, the head of the Policing Authority has said.

If An Garda Síochána is to attract top talent from overseas for the commissioner job then the salary will have to be increased significantly, the Government has said.

The Government has issued a strong denial to Sinn Féin claims that funding increase requests from the State’s corporate enforcer were turned down.

Almost 16,700 people have applied for the 600 trainee garda positions being filled this year.

An assistant garda commissioner has claimed he was asked by Garda commissioner Nóirín O’Sullivan during interviews for the position of deputy commisisoner about his views on “left-wing political extremism in Ireland” and on left- wing politicians.

The Government is expected to publish legislation on the new policing authority and advertise for the head of the Garda Ombudsman within weeks.

The Department of Justice has refused to provide any information on the selection process for the chairperson of the forthcoming independent Policing Authority.

The rush to establish the State’s Policing Authority has left important questions about how it will work go unanswered, reports Cormac O’Keeffe

The procedure being used by the Government to appoint the head of the new independent policing authority is at odds with the systems used for equivalent bodies in Scotland and in the North.

Adverts calling for invitations for expressions of interest in the role of Policing Authority chairperson has already raided a number of concerns, writes Cormac O’Keeffe.

Concerns mounted yesterday over the Government process to appoint the chairperson of the new independent Policing Authority.

Cork’s city councillors took the unprecedented decision last night to defer the appointment of the city’s new chief executive.

Fianna Fáil have branded the junior health ministers announcement of a new Mental health Service Director as a embaressing gaff for government.

Retired public servants have shared a €1.36m bonanza for interviewing candidates for public service jobs over the past five years, new figures show.

Retired public servants last year shared a pay pot of almost €400,000 for sitting on interview boards and assessing applicants seeking jobs in the public service.

The Public Appointments Service has launched a comprehensive review of examination results after almost 1,600 nursing course applicants were sent the wrong entrance test scores.

BONUS and performance payments of almost €5 million were paid to civil and public servants last year.

A HOSPITAL which has been unable to recruit a consultant radiologist to read CT scans has to send the specialised x-rays by taxi every day to a hospital 30km away where they are interpreted.

A PUBLIC hospital which was paying €6,000 a week to a private hospital because its hi-tech scanner was lying idle will resume its own scanning next week.

AN average of 14 people have applied for each of the Garda Reserve jobs on offer this year.

An average of 14 people have applied for each Garda Reserve job on offer this year, figures today revealed.

Malaysia’s ruling coalition suffered its biggest yet electoral upset, losing control of four state governments and failing to win a two-thirds majority in parliament, in a protest vote against racial discrimination, crime and corruption.

Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi’s ruling coalition suffered its biggest upset in nearly four decades in general elections today, reflecting widespread unhappiness at his failure to curb racial tensions, corruption and inflation.

About 300 Islamic opposition party activists staged peaceful protests outside the British and US embassies in Malaysia today, denouncing Salman Rushdie’s knighthood and Washington’s policies in the Middle East.

NONE of the country’s trainee surgeons intend to apply for hospital consultant posts advertised last week, according to the college responsible for training them.

INTERVIEWING several hundred applicants for the Garda Reserve started this week, the Department of Justice said yesterday.

CHINESE applicants are tops among the ethnic minorities seeking to join the gardaí. A total of 1,310 applicants to join the force indicated they were in an ethnic category other than “white Irish”.

MORE than 800 non-nationals have applied to join the gardaí - more than the entire force in Limerick.

The National Disability Authority today gave recommendations for Personal Assistance Services (PAS) for people with disabilities in Ireland.

Incumbent Abdullah Ahmad Badawi was sworn in today as Malaysia’s fifth prime minister, a day after scoring a landslide election victory that handed the fundamentalist Islamic opposition its worst defeat in more than a decade.

Malaysia’s prime minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi won a landslide victory yesterday after voters resoundingly rejected the fundamentalist Islamic opposition and handed the secular leader a mandate for cleaner government.