A dedicated Garda internet unit would allow it to refer greater volumes of takedown requests to companies concerning online terrorist material, according to the EU’s counter-terrorism chief.

A major new headquarters planned for specialist Garda units will not be big enough to accommodate all personnel currently based in its existing building in Harcourt Square, the acting Garda commissioner has warned.

It will take “some time” for people with a critical viewpoint inside An Garda Síochána to be fully accepted as “constructive and loyal members”, the organisation’s audit body has said.

Gardaí have used private email accounts to send and receive messages relating to their work, and the force has no record of these correspondences, an Oireachtas committee has heard.

There was “very little documentation” provided to justify continuing a multimillion-euro contract for the provision of IT services to An Garda Síochána, the Public Accounts Committee heard yesterday.

There have been 171 motorbike riders killed and 629 seriously injured on Irish roads since 2010, it has emerged.

At least 1,000 extra gardaí would be needed to police a hard border with the North.

Seven gardaí took their own lives in the past year and a survey shows around one in six gardaí have exhibited signs of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).

Plans to build new garda stations and refurbish existing ones are being “significantly” affected because of a shortage of funding, the garda commissioner has warned.

There is no reason to view Ireland as a “weak link” in the fight against international terrorism, the head of Interpol has said.

The cruel uncertainties inflicted on the women, and their families, caught up in the cancer scandal are the most distressing symptoms of the outrage.

Up to a hundred more searches are expected to be conducted this year in relation to a major investigation into child abuse imagery, garda bosses have said.

Senior gardaí have admitted they failed civilian analysts who raised problems about the inaccurate recording of crime statistics and were also belittled by management.

The acting Garda commissioner will today admit that gardaí “overlooked” revisiting or upgrading a number of investigations into suspicious deaths which has resulted in the homicide data debacle.

Gardaí have boosted staffing to its Cyber Crime Bureau to more than 30 members and plan to clear the persistent backlog in the examination of computers in child abuse imagery cases by this time next year.

Frontline Garda bosses believe that Brexit will result in a “massive draw” on resources back to the border, with major implications for Garda divisions and national units.

The Policing Authority has expressed fears that the Government’s refusal to change the mandatory retirement age for the Garda chief, currently set at 60, might “narrow the field” of candidates for the job.

The Garda chief has said that all of the country’s divisional commanders have told him that the lack of frontline supervision of garda members was a problem.

The Garda mental health services have been given a “five out of 10” by a psychologist amid warnings from frontline supervisors that they cannot cope with ever-increasing work-related stress.

Gardaí have spent almost €20m to cover the cost of compensation payouts, legal cases and court settlements from members of the public and individual officers in the last two years.

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.

The Garda Inspectorate has said it expects gardaí to have sexual and domestic violence units in all 28 divisions by the end of the year — despite warnings from the Commissioner that their plan to establish just four this year, on top of the existing four, was in jeopardy.

The Policing Authority is to discuss this week whether to dismiss a member of An Garda Síochána.

The Policing Authority has told the boss of the Department of Justice that she needs to be “proactive” and “visible” in backing cultural change among garda management.

The acting Garda Commissioner has met with representatives from US Homeland Security today in connection with the investigation into the murder of Detective Garda Adrian Donohoe.

THE Garda Policing Plan 2018 has much to recommend it, including an initiative to deal with domestic violence in a more coherent way, a policy to recruit from minority groups, new measures to deal with cyber crime and the formation of a special team to deal with the fallout from Brexit.

Women’s Aid has welcomed measures in the Garda Policing Plan 2018 aimed at addressing problems in the recording and investigation of domestic violence.

The Criminal Assets Bureau (CAB) is conducting 14 investigations in Cork city and county, targeting drug dealers, gangs of burglars, and those involved in organised prostitution.

The Government has agreed to change the law to allow external candidates over the age of 55 to apply for the post of Garda Commissioner.

Gardaí have issued an apology to the woman at the centre of the Kerry babies scandal, admitting for the first time that the original investigation was substandard.

Concerns were expressed in a government department about the setting up of a controversial unit in An Garda Síochána to liaise with the Disclosures Tribunal, according to documents seen by the Irish Examiner.

An independent barrister is likely to be appointed, potentially as soon as this weekend, to oversee an external inquiry into why the Department of Justice failed to hand over key Maurice McCabe email files to the Charleton Tribunal.

How much oversight is too much? One thing that has emerged from the shenanigans of the last week or so is that the gardaí and the Department of Justice could do with plenty of oversight.

The breath test scandal has been “swept under the carpet”, according to a road safety lobby group.

In our least attractive national game — kicking the can down the road — there are strategies to buy time so hard decisions might be long-fingered.

Acting commissioner apologises ‘unreservedly’ for unacceptable behavioural and governance failures

As Justice Minister Frances Fitzgerald yesterday confronted the strengthening possibility that she might become the second justice minister to lose a cabinet seat over one of the scandals that have so altered the perception of An Garda Síochána, another episode in our culture war played out in a Leinster House committee room when senior gardaí were guests of the Public Accounts Committee.

Transport Minister Shane Ross is facing fresh claims that he pulled a “political stroke” by ensuring Stepaside Garda Station was re-opened after a senior garda officer said the facility “would not have been my number one priority”.

Bumping up the figures for the number of motorists breathalysed constitutes one level of deception. Actually falsifying that a checkpoint took place at all is of a different order completely, writes Michael Clifford

Frontline gardaí will consider legal options if the Garda Commissioner pursues disciplinary proceedings against members for falsifying breath tests.

Acting Commissioner Dónall Ó Cualáin must show the Policing Authority in three weeks what disciplinary proceedings are being taken against gardaí on the breath test scandal.

Catch up on this morning's headlines...

Garda management will come under renewed pressure today, with a Policing Authority report expected to highlight a culture in the organisation to keep breath test figures high.

Not one garda has been disciplined over the bogus alcohol breath test scandal despite the force admitting it inaccurately recorded some 6.4m tests at one stage.