The continued under-resourcing of the gardaí is "a significant barrier" to ensuring it can recruit and train new gardaí, the Policing Authority has said.
In its annual assessment of An Garda Síochána's policing performance, the authority said that because of a shortfall in garda recruitment, there are more than a thousand fewer gardaí available at present and in the near future.
This the report said, presents considerable policing performance challenges in areas such as community policing, economic crime, victims’ services, human rights, ICT, and data analysis.
It pointed to the particular need for additional resources and ring-fenced funding for the Garda National Economic Crime Bureau which were recommended in the Hamilton report and promised by Garda management two years ago but not delivered.
The Policing Authority said this is hampering the bureau’s ability to carry out its functions effectively.
The report also commended as "sustained success", the work of the gardaí in tackling organised crime groups, specifically the Kinahan Organised Crime Group and Black Axe, and their collaboration with US, UK, EU and other law enforcement partners.
It described the improvements in the response to domestic, sexual and gender-based violence, cyber-crime, anti-corruption, and diversity and hate crime as "transformational".
It said the backlog in the examination of electronic devices, whose evidential content can be crucial in processing such cases, has been considerably reduced.
"This is a significant achievement and represents a tangible and crucial outcome of increased investment in cyber-crime capacity," the report stated.
It said the gardaí had played an important part in policing protests against the arrival of refugees and those seeking international protection and has balanced the right to protest with keeping communities and vulnerable people safe, sometimes in the face of outright hostility from a minority.
The report also said the ongoing impact of Covid-19 on resources is "profound."
"The closure of the Garda college for a time, and the restrictions on numbers able to attend once reopened, has resulted in more than a thousand fewer Gardaí available for service than the organisation's planning had envisaged," the chairperson of the Authority Bob Collins said.
