Garda missed opportunity to reform, says watchdog

One of the country’s policing watchdogs has warned that some of its advice has been a missed opportunity to reform the Garda and avoid controversies.

Mark Toland, the chief inspector with the Garda Inspectorate, said the office has published 11 reports in nine years with 574 recommendations — more than 200 in a damning audit of the handling of crime and investigations in 2014.

“We found that we are repeating some recommendations in reports,” he said.