The Minister for Justice has said new legislation will be introduced to free up more gardaí by reducing the amount of time officers spend in court.
The legislation, he said, will enable digitalisation and remote hearings at the district court level.
He was speaking at the graduation of 149 new gardaí at the Garda College in Templemore.
Mr O'Callaghan said there are too many gardaí at too many uncontested and routine cases when they would be better served policing the streets.
He said there was no need for so many gardaí turning up in court, and in cases, for example, where a person has breached their bail conditions, the garda should not have to go back to court to get a bench warrant.
He said this would "save time and get them out on the street".
"The Miscellaneous Provisions Bill will provide a basis for the remote hearing of all types of criminal proceedings," Mr O'Callaghan said.
"As such it has the potential to significantly reduce garda time and resources expended on conveying persons in their custody to the courts, along with garda time spent in the court itself."
The minister added that the new legislation will also contain "provisions around digitalisation of documents including bench warrants and charge sheets, which gardaí are currently required to produce in paper form and physically deliver to the courts".
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New recruits
Mr O'Callaghan said he was "optimistic" that the Government would reach its target of 1,000 new garda recruits by the end of the year, but the Garda Commissioner pointed out that the maximum number that can be trained is 800, a shortfall of 200.
A further 285 garda recruits are in the process of undergoing the training programme at the Garda College.
Commissioner Drew Harris rejected opposition calls that gardaí stop using the Israeli technology Cellebrite, which enabled gardaí to access Stephen Mooney's phone and convict him of his wife Anna's murder, which he had recorded on it.
The commissioner also defended the decision to send the majority of new gardaí, 98 of them, to Dublin.
He insisted they were not neglecting rural Ireland, but they had a specific plan to police Dublin city centre.
Numbers crisis
Social Democrats TD Gary Gannon raised concerns around the number of gardaí leaving the force.
Speaking on RTÉ's Drivetime, he said that while he welcomed any initiative to free up more gardaí, issues including pay, conditions and morale within the force are some of the reasons why gardaí are choosing to leave.
"We don't see much in the way of any sort of understanding on what's driving gardaí out of the force and leaving our streets full-time.
"That for me is a bigger concern than something that should have been done long ago [freeing up more gardaí]."
Mr Gannon said Ireland is delving into what will be a crisis in terms of garda numbers and that there are 6,400 gardaí who are eligible for retirement in 2028.
"So, we think we have problems at the moment, but over the next three, four years, that's going to become even more pronounced."
Speaking on the same programme, Minister of State at the Department of Justice Niall Collins said almost 6,800 people expressed interest in joining the force during the recent Garda Recruitment Campaign, he said that figure was up from 6,400 the previous year.
"Every single week crime is changing, crime is dynamic, but we have laid out our stall in relation to Government, we want to drive recruitment....to see 5,000 gardaí recruited over the lifetime of this Government..."
