Garda independence under threat from minister, warn civil rights groups

THE Minister for Justice will be handed immense powers to control and influence gardaí under little-publicised sections of a Bill to reform the force, campaigners said yesterday.

Sections of the Garda Síochána Bill, if enacted, have the potential to seriously undermine the long held principle of police independence from the Government, a paper published yesterday warned.

Researchers from the Irish Council of Civil Liberties (ICCL) and Amnesty Ireland delivered the paper at a seminar on human rights and Garda reform.