Gardaí to demand an independent police authority

Frontline gardaí are to demand an independent police authority, to remove political influence from a force which they maintain is being stripped of its power to protect the public and tackle crime.

That will be one of the messages coming from the three-day Garda Representative Association conference which opens in Westport, Co Mayo, this evening.

The GRA, which represents 11,000 frontline members of the force, says they are short 400 patrol cars and the situation is so critical that Garda management recently had to hire four vehicles to help in the investigation into the murder of Detective Garda Adrian Donohue in Co Louth.