Expert calls to strip justice minister of police powers

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.

Dermot Walsh said that the new Garda Authority should also be part of a wider and deeper examination of policing in Ireland and should involve a Northern Ireland-style Patten Commission.

Prof Walsh, an author of several books on gardaí and policing, said the authority should have the power to investigate operational policing — including stop-and-search powers, arrest, detention, entry to homes, and the shadowy world of surveillance.