Maurice Hayes (Ind) said he would take Garda training out of Templemore in the morning. Recruits should be trained alongside social worker trainees and other people with whom the gardaí would be working over their careers.
Speaking on a Labour motion calling for the immediate implementation of the recommendations of the Morris tribunal reports, Dr Hayes said he would still argue for the establishment of a Garda authority.
Politicians had been put on the police authority in Northern Ireland in order to make them responsible so that they could not sit on the ditch and criticise people who were responsible for policing and make appalling demands.
The Labour motion also called for the taking of steps to provide for an independent policing authority and an independent one-person Garda ombudsman.
Rejecting the call for the setting up of a police authority, Justice Minister of State Brian Lenihan said that the way forward was certainly not to hand over responsibility for the Garda Síochána to a non-elected, unrepresented and ultimately unaccountable authority.
On the proposal in the Garda Bill for a three-member Garda ombudsman commission structure, Mr Lenihan said Mr McDowell remained opposed to the idea of a one-person ombudsman. However, an amendment would be tabled to the Bill to give effect to the commission having one member at its head.
Mr Lenihan said the best way forward for the Garda Síochána as an organisation was set out in the measures included in the Bill. These provisions would provide the accountability and structures appropriate to our democracy and political system.
The Garda Commissioner had undertaken a review of the findings of the first Morris report and its implications for the management of the force. That had now been completed and the commissioner had published his proposals.