If implemented, the recommendations in the latest report on Garda reform would make the force almost unrecognisable, writes Conor Lally
The scale of reform set out by the advisory group on Garda management and leadership is best summarised by recommendations dealing with support for senior officers.
It states that at senior management levels within the private sector it is not uncommon for executives to have a personal coach.
"This could be appropriate," it notes, "at some senior levels in the Garda, for a commissioner or regional assistant commissioners, where command can often be a lonely place."
The majority of officers currently filling those Garda ranks are fifty-somethings.
They were weaned in an era when the idea of water safety, for example, was for young recruits to be issued with one-size-fits-all pairs of Speedos in Templemore and ordered to jump off a high diving board into the icy waters of the Garda pool below.
The idea of these men (and one or two women) tiptoeing up the corridors of Garda Headquarters into the office of the Garda Commissioner, or civilian head of human resources, to admit their loneliness and request a "personal coach" would no doubt bring a smile to even their own faces.
It was a long way from personal coaches that they were reared.
But that is the point of the new report: getting away from the old thinking, embracing new ideas.
The report is peppered with concepts and phraseology from the private sector.
It talks of hiring civilian experts to drive change and spending what you need to get the best candidates.
It says the Garda needs to get away from the system where promotion to senior ranks comes in one's fifties.
It talks of fast-tracking bright young Garda college graduates and giving them places on working groups and taskforces because knowledge (shock, horror) can often be more important than rank.
It says the force should be run by a board of management made up of the Garda Commissioner, his Garda Deputy Commissioners and a civilian chief administration officer.
These would be joined by three civilian non-executive directors headhunted from the private and public sectors for their expertise in management, strategic planning and human resources.
The report's authors point out that the profile of recruits joining An Garda Síochána is changing all the time, with more graduates than ever signing up. This phenomenon, while welcome, brings its challenges with younger members requiring constant stimulation to keep them fully engaged.
There is no doubt that the force is undergoing massive reform at present.
The advisory group's interim report earlier this year recommended the creation of seven civilian senior management posts; a radical idea in an organisation where civilians had only ever filled clerical posts.
The new posts have already been filled or recruitment begun. The system will see civilians heading up key areas such as communications and media management, human resources and information technology.
There will also be a civilian Deputy Commissioner who will assume the title of Chief Administration Officer, Resource Management. The civilians will help sworn officers manage a massive reform programme.
Already the force has had to contend with the introduction of the Garda Ombudsman Commission, an independent body which investigates complaints against Garda members in the post-Morris tribunal era.
Added to that the Garda Inspectorate, headed by Kathleen O'Toole, is already well up and running and has not been slow in pointing out, for example, that the Garda's progress on civilianisation is 20 years out of step with international best practice.
It also picked apart the force's former approach to sieges like Abbeylara, where John Carthy was shot dead, saying new second-tier Emergency Response Units are needed across the country to respond more quickly to such situations.
She has also recommended a complete realignment of the force which would put community policing, rather than specialist units, at its core.
This all comes at a time when the Garda Reserve is being bedded in and when 3,000 new full-time gardaí and 300 civilian support workers are being hired.
Ireland's population is growing faster than ever and immigration, cybercrime, gangland and transnational crime are occupying more Garda time than ever.
It is all being handled by a force that, up until about 18 months ago, had changed little since the foundation of the State.
Maurice Hayes's group has proposed the establishment of six independently operational Garda forces under the six regional Assistant Commissioners. Strong devolved local structures may result in a more easily controlled birth for the reformed force.