The chairperson of the Commission on the Future of Policing has said that implementation of its report should be "a national priority".
Kathleen O'Toole told the Oireachtas Justice Committee this evening that there is an urgent need for comprehensive and fundamental change in An Garda Síochána as there are critical systemic problems related to culture, structures, accountability and management processes.
The commission's report published last September recommends a new approach to policing and community safety as well as measures to develop a professional, ethical and modern police service.
It also calls for a new approach to garda oversight and more co-operation between agencies involved in the criminal justice system.
A consultation process on the report involving the Garda Commissioner and Government departments is currently under way.
The Chairperson also told the Committee that the report does not recommend the abolition of the Policing Authority or GSOC.
It recommended combining the work of the authority and the Garda Inspectorate under a single oversight body; that GSOC be renamed and carry out all investigations itself and that gardaí no longer investigate themselves.
In her final engagement as chair of the commission, Ms O’Toole said the recommendations in the commission's report can be done and must be done in the interests of An Garda Síochána and the people they serve.
Meanwhile, the commission has said that public oversight and public accountability for the gardaí will continue.
Commission member Professor Donnacha O’Connell told the committee that the idea that the Commissioner and senior gardaí would no longer appear in Dublin Castle and answer questions about policing is wrong.
Fianna Fáil's Jim O’Callaghan said Oireachtas members wanted the gardaí to be held to account in this manner.
Professor O’Connell said the idea behind merging the Garda Inspectorate and the Policing Authority was to enhance the role of the new body and make it better equipped to deal with these issues.
The Commission also defended its recommendation that the power to promote senior gardaí be removed from the Policing Authority and handed back to the Garda Commissioner.
The recommendation was criticised at the Oireachtas Justice Committee by Independents for Change TD Clare Daly who asked if there was a problem with appointments already made by the Policing Authority.
Ms Daly also said it seems bizarre that appointments may have been made that the Garda Commissioner "couldn't live with".
Prof O’Connell said the police have to be able to run their own service and it was vitally important that a Chief Executive Officer have a say in the appointment of their own team.
He said the commission was not saying there was a problem with the Authority's appointments, but he said the Garda Commissioner should be involved in these promotions.
He added that while the recommendation was not a comment on any appointment by the Authority, things could be done better and more effectively.
He also said the view of the commission was that the primary role of the Policing Authority is oversight.
The commission chairperson said she has been very heartened by the response to the commission's report and very optimistic that its recommendations will be implemented.
Ms O'Toole told the committee that yesterday she met representatives of eight Government departments to determine what each department will have to contribute to "get this done".
She said people were now following up very soon on the commission's report and that when she worked on the Patten Commission, they had to wait a year because of the political process.
She also said she did not expect the response to the report to be as universally positive as it has been.
Ms O'Toole said it was "unfinished business" for her because when she left Ireland after serving as the first head of the Garda Inspectorate she was "frustrated".
She said police reform had been "placed on the back burner" because the government was "necessarily distracted by the economic crisis".
However, she said it became clear that something had to be done and now was the time to do it.
She said the commission's report was a reflection of what they had heard from the people.
