Garda intelligence services have been dealt a blow with the retirement of its chief with uncertainty as to how long it will take to fill his position.

Last Monday, Adare, Co Limerick, remembered Jerry McCabe on the 20th anniversary of the IRA attack which claimed his life near the village post office. Yesterday, his own people and hundreds of others gathered in Ballylongford, Co Kerry, where he was brought up to pay their tribute.

New cybercrime units, local teams to combat domestic violence and sexual assault, and a hotline to report child sex abuse are among a raft of reforms unveiled yesterday by the Garda Commissioner.

Gardaí have warned the bosses of the Kinahan crime cartel that they are intent on arresting them abroad and bringing them back home to face justice.

Good morning. Here’s everything you need to know before you start your day.

Gardaí are expanding the size and expertise of its secretive unit tasked with combating Islamic extremists. The garda’s security chief told the Irish Examiner that the investment would enhance the strength and investigative skills of Counter Terrorism International.

The public’s knowledge of the threat posed by Islamic extremists in Ireland is as limited as the amount of information provided to it by the authorities. As part of ongoing reports on this area, Cormac O’Keeffe was given a rare in-depth interview with the head of the Garda’s security services, Assistant Commissioner John O’Mahoney, about the reality of the situation here and what is being done about it. 

Gardaí suspect dissident republican Michael Barr was shot dead because it was believed by the Kinahan cartel he provided a “safe house” to one of the gunmen in the Regency Hotel attack.

Detections for drink driving are up this year despite a significant drop in the number of people being breathalysed.

Gardaí are to bring in a new system to deal with the estimated 120,000 non-executed warrants for the arrest and imprisonment of suspects.

There will be intense competition for the two positions of deputy Garda commissioners, which are expected to attract applications from both within the force and outside the organisation.

The publication of the penalty points report earlier today is major step forward in tackling the ’nod and wink’ culture that persists among some in the Gardai ranks, suggests Michael Clifford.

Do all senior garda officers read reports pertaining to how they should do their work? The release of details of an investigation into the latest abuses of the penalty points system suggests not.

Around a dozen senior appointments are to be made in the force before Christmas in a bid to fill vacancies that riddle the Garda top brass.

THE VOYAGE

"Bent" gardaí should be banned from cancelling penalty points — even when there are legitimate reasons — because the long-running fiasco over the system means they cannot be trusted.

While the focus of a €82m cocaine seizure off the Cork coast has firmly shifted to Britain, gardaí are still trying to ascertain if the drugs shipment may have been unloaded here before being retransported across the water.

THE last week was a country music song, performed during a surreal interlude in a cranky summer. We had achy breaky hearts, and forlorn love and a concert that up and died, only to be revived, by either Jesus or Enda Kenny, depending on who you want to dropkick you through the goalposts of life.

Garda whistleblower Sergeant Maurice McCabe said he’s “glad” the justice minister has corrected the Dáil record on a claim that he failed to co-operate with an internal Garda inquiry into penalty point cancellations.

Justice Minister Alan Shatter appears to have survived another crisis after an apology to two gardaí who blew the whistle on penalty point cancellations eased concerns of his Labour Party coalition colleagues.

The question of who will succeed Martin Callinan as Garda commissioner almost invariably prompts the answer that there’s only one man — or in this case, woman — for the job.

Michael Clifford says that the big winner in the penalty points furore is the administration of the law in observing road safety and, for that, two whistleblowers deserve a debt of gratitude

Justice Minister Alan Shatter is expected to come under renewed pressure to apologise to two Garda whistleblowers after a “damning” Garda Inspectorate report criticises the cancellation of penalty points by members of the force.

Regarding the ‘so-called’ Garda whistleblower saga, and putting politics aside, it was with astonishment that I watched Garda Assistant Commissioner John O’Mahoney, the officer who was tasked by Commissioner Martin Callinan to investigate the complaint made to the confidential recipient in April 2012, say to the Public Account’s Committee on January 23 that he did not feel that it was necessary to interview either of the members, because the complaint was ‘anonymous’.

February 9, 2012

Micheál Martin is today expected to broaden Fianna Fáil’s attack on Justice Minister Alan Shatter’s handling of the Garda Ombudsman Office affair, after receiving a briefing from Sergeant Maurice McCabe, the Garda whistleblower who highlighted the penalty points scandal.

The Government’s rush to demand explanations from the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission as to why it didn’t tell them of its concerns that its offices were bugged is another example of the Coalition’s attempts to deflect attention away from its own responsibilities.

The use of ‘medical emergency’ to explain terminating fixed-charged notices has plunged. Are we getting healthier, or is there another reason, asks Michael Clifford.

IN THE beginning, the penalty points story had some celebrity wattage. A judge was alleged to have been the beneficiary of cancelled points.

A Garda whistleblower who provided a “box of evidence” allegedly containing information on widespread abuse of the penalty point system was advised by the Department of Justice he had a “duty” to bring any such information to the attention of the Oireachtas.

THE whistleblower’s lot can be lonely. Remember Sheena McMahon? She was a young mother, who, in the mid-1990s, told of madness in sections of the gardaí in Donegal.

HOW can two esteemed state bodies reach radically different conclusions in investigating the same scandal? How can two government ministers have radically different positions on the results of an investigation into the scandal?

Independent TD Clare Daly has launched a scathing attack on the Taoiseach, the minister for justice and the Garda commissioner claiming they “covered up” serious abuses in the penalty points system which were exposed yesterday by the Comptroller & Auditor General.

An Garda Síochána repeatedly refused to make any information available to the Irish Examiner on its two-year investigation into how gardaí handled allegations of clerical abuse in the Murphy Report.

The Garda report into allegations surrounding the termination of penalty points failed to highlight several serious issues that point to a more widespread culture.

The incidence of motorists speeding to respond to medical emergencies has plummeted in the last six months, according to a garda source.

A Garda superintendent is facing possible fraud charges after the conclusion of an internal probe into claims of penalty points being quashed.