The Garda Commissioner, Noel Conroy, has been granted the power to immediately dismiss any Garda whom he feels has committed grave breach of discipline.
The power is enshrined in the new Garda Disciplinary Regulations, which were signed into law today and take effect from 1 June.
The regulations also allow for the establishment of disciplinary inquiries and specify a range of misconduct offences, from discourtesy to criminal conduct.
It was the actions of discredited gardaí like detective Noel McMahon and Superintendent Kevin Lennon in Donegal that led the Morris Tribunal to conclude that new, less formal and less complex regulations were needed to discipline errant gardaí.
The new regulations outline a series of disciplinary measures to deal with minor, less serious and grave breaches of discipline.
These range from informal resolution, through to formal investigation and the establishment of Boards of Inquiry and Appeal.
For the first time these disciplinary boards will include a minister's nominee and a judge or experienced lawyer, as well as a senior garda officer.
The new regulations also allow the Garda Commissioner to summarily dismiss a garda whom he feels has committed an offence so grave an inquiry would not change his decision.
The Morris Tribunal found that the main problem when disciplining gardaí was the fact that legal procedures could be used to delay and frustrate simple, straightforward disciplinary investigations.
