In her first appearance as chief drafter of Ireland’s policing blueprint, Kathleen O’Toole came across as the kind of person you might want to be holding the pen.

Latest: Fianna Fáil has again expressed its desire to see Garda Commissioner Noirin O’Sullivan resign her post.

A root-and-branch review of An Garda Síochána will examine four key areas with a view to beefing up powers of authorities supervising the force.

The justice minister should be stripped of a massive range of police powers extending far beyond oversight to include recruitment, training, equipment, pay and pensions, according to a leading expert.

A FORMER senator who was heavily involved in the North’s Patten Commission policing report will chair a three-month inquiry into the Tallaght Hospital crisis.

Taoiseach Bertie Ahern will meet the former Northern Ireland Police Ombudsman, Nuala O’Loan, in Dublin later today.

The Garda Inspectorate today insisted there was no need for a fully-armed police force despite the growing threat of gangland violence.

The man who oversaw the blueprint for sweeping reforms to the North's police service will today give his assessment on the scale of change.

Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams made a direct appeal to nationalists and republicans today to sign up to policing structures in the North in a bid to secure power sharing.

The woman charged with overseeing the Garda urged Sinn Féin today to accept the new policing arrangements in the North.

Ostensibly, the reports of the Garda Síochána Inspectorate and the Management Advisory Group, which recommend radical reform of garda management, should be welcomed, both from a garda and public perspective.

THE new head of the Garda Inspectorate has said the force is ready to move on in the wake of the highly critical Morris Tribunal report.

TAOISEACH Bertie Ahern yesterday tried to reassure the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) that the constitutional question has been settled in the Good Friday Agreement.

Here are some of the key episodes in the peace process since the IRA announced its historic ceasefire almost 11 years ago:

RUC reformers Chris Patten and Maurice Hayes should be recruited to review An Garda Síochána and devise an alternative to the proposed Garda Ombudsman, the Labour party said yesterday.

The British government has announced plans to continue controversial rules requiring 50% of all police recruits in the North to be Catholic.

The UK government faced fresh unionist demands today to scrap a police recruitment quota in Northern Ireland which requires an equal number of Catholic and Protestant trainees.

Sinn Féin was accused today of “running scared” on the policing issue in Northern Ireland.

An Ulster Unionist MP today expressed cynicism about whether a proposed body for monitoring paramilitary ceasefires would have the guts to put Sinn Féin out of government over IRA activity.

MAJOR reform of policing and criminal justice in the North will be the Taoiseach’s main demands when he meets British Prime Minister Tony Blair at a special summit in Dublin today.

Sinn Fein's policing spokesman, Gerry Kelly, has confirmed the party will not be joining the Policing Board in the North unless there are further changes to implement the Patten Commission.

A CONTROVERSIAL non-fatal weapon due to be given to gardaí has been withdrawn from use by other police forces around the world because it proved too dangerous.

THE planned garda inspectorate must be independent, impartial, and have strong investigative powers if it is to work properly, the North’s police ombudsman will argue at a major conference today.

Gerry Adams today appeared to rule out his party's support for the idea of an independent assessor of the paramilitary ceasefires.

A new protocol aimed at strengthening ties between the police on both sides of the Irish border is due to come into effect today.

Decommissioning of paramilitary arms is "indispensable" to the future of the Northern peace process, the Irish and British Governments insisted today.

The British and Irish governments have been considering a review of the Northern Ireland Parades Commission as part of their package of proposals to rescue the Good Friday Agreement, it was claimed tonight.

The UK Government must provide republicans with a script of any amendments to policing legislation in Northern Ireland if the problems in the peace process are to be resolved, a senior Sinn Fein source claimed today.

Loyalist and republican paramilitaries must move towards disarmament if the Good Friday Agreement is to reach its full potential, a nationalist minister on the Stormont Executive claimed today.

The RUC is ready and willing to undergo the transformation in policing, the force said today.

Democratic Unionist Party leader, the Rev Ian Paisley, today claimed the Northern Ireland peace process was now "shattered".

The President of Sinn Fein, Gerry Adams, has said this afternoon he believes that insufficient progress has been made on policing.

New Northern Ireland policing arrangements will not work fully without backing from all political sides, the RUC chief constable has said.