Garda sergeants and inspectors say they cannot get doctors to come to garda stations to treat people in custody or take samples from drunken drivers.
The Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors' conference in Killarney in Co Kerry was also told that gardaí are also actively discouraged from seizing dangerous and defective cars because they have nowhere to store them.
Garda representatives from Cavan and Monaghan also told delegates that the public order problem in the counties was getting worse and that they did not have enough cells to hold detainees.
Meanwhile, the Garda Commissioner, Noel Conroy, has increased the number of armed patrols on the streets of Dublin to tackle gangland crime.
Speaking at the AGSI conference, he said more armed gardaí would be assigned wherever or whenever necessary.
However, he said this diversion of resources to tackle drug-related gun crime meant detection rates, though still comparably high, were falling.
Mr Conroy also said guns coming in from eastern Europe and with drug shipments were a serious problem and that gunmen and those involved in drug crime - even as victims - gave no help or co-operation to investigating gardaí.
Criminals, he said, were shooting innocent people as well as each other.
Also outlining some of the measures gardaí were adopting to tackle road deaths, he said more forensic traffic investigators were now being trained and he promised that a serious collision unit was being established in every region.
