Some Opposition politicians have criticised Minister for Justice Brian Lenihan after he dismissed proposals to establish an independent Garda authority to bring more transparency to the management of the force.
Labour and Sinn Féin both rejected Mr Lenihan's argument that the Garda's intelligence-gathering function on behalf of the State could not be opened to scrutiny by an outside agency.
Speaking on Tuesday at the Patrick MacGill Summer School in Glenties, Co Donegal, Mr Lenihan said the tendency to set up agencies and bodies at one remove from the Government was "an abdication of responsibility".
Labour's spokesman on justice Brendan Howlin, who is in favour of an independent authority, described the Minister's comments as "misleading and unconvincing".
The Garda was being run within the Department of Justice in order that there should be no public responsibility for its "current operations or for its future," he said.
"The reality is that an independent Garda authority, representative of civil society, is needed precisely in order to bring in a new, efficient and transparent regime of openness and accountability that is at present completely lacking."
The force's current direct responsibility to the Minister of the day was now the "single greatest roadblock to a reform package for the gardaí".
Sinn Féin's spokesman on justice, Aengus Ó Snodaigh, also rejected Mr Lenihan's claim that the Garda's intelligence-gathering function would be compromised by an independent Garda authority over the force.
"[ Mr Lenihan's] predecessor, Michael McDowell, frequently avoided parliamentary efforts to hold him to account in his areas of responsibility by claiming that the issues raised were matters for the Irish Prison Service or the Courts Service and not himself.
"Actions speak louder than words and it remains to be seen whether the new Minister will allow himself to be held accountable, or if he will in turn abdicate responsibility to State agencies."
Mr Lenihan on Tuesday said of the mooted Garda authority: "A government cannot abdicate responsibility in these matters. I can't be left as the Minister for Justice in a position where I have to beg the chairman of an authority to urge the Garda to take a particular course of action."
Too many agencies had been established to run different agencies of the State, he said.
"I subscribe to the old-fashioned point of view that we have a general election. The purpose of it is to create a majority in the Dáil who will then unite around a Government and who are then accountable . . ."
