Several gardai were injured during the riots and a senior source in the GRA, which represents rankand-file gardai, said that under existing health and safety legislation, all employers . . . including An Garda Siochana . . . must carry out a risk assessment before they send their employees out to a potentially dangerous situation.

The senior GRA source claimed that garda management had failed to carry out a proper risk assessment of the dangers posed by a loyalist march through O'Connell Street in Dublin, which was under repair with bricks, paving slabs and iron bars lying around.

The GRA also claimed that not enough gardai were deployed on the day because garda management was not prepared to spend the money on overtime.

The senior GRA source said that its members' lives were put in danger by an inadequate risk assessment.

A spokesman for the Health and Safety Authority confirmed that following a request from the GRA and other sources it has done an investigation into the risk assessment completed by garda management before the march.

He said that the authority also examined the impact the assessment had not only on the gardai's safety, but the public's safety also.

The issue of garda resources for the day was also examined, he said.

He said that the authority was working with the gardai on the report's recommendations and as such the investigation was "ongoing".

The spokesman would not, however, confirm whether the authority's first health and safety investigation into garda operations had found whether garda management had breached health and safety regulations.