"Stand by the declaration and oath you took when you attested to An Garda Siochana and stand by the will of the people in reform of that force or opt out. There is no middle ground on that issue."

The ultimatum was delivered at a press conference ostensibly called to mark the publication of three reports from the Morris tribunal. Along with the three reports, the minister also published new disciplinary regulations for the force.

Discipline was the theme of the day. Excerpts from Judge Morris's report that referred to a breakdown of discipline were read for the media.

The breaches of discipline touched on in the report were mentioned. Disciplinary hearings on misconduct within the force had the complexity and formality of a murder trial, Judge Morris reported. For anybody chasing a soundbite, discipline was your only man.

From early on, it became obvious that the minister's theme wasn't just referring to the activity uncovered by Morris. The publication of the reports gave him the forum to have a cut at the gardai for opposing his reserve force. He was effectively linking the two. Indiscipline led to criminal activity and gross negligence in Donegal. The same indiscipline can be seen in the resistance of the rank and file gardai to accommodate the reserve force.

While the discipline theme might serve the minister's current imperative well, it isn't the dominant one that jumps out on reading the reports. Time and again issues of culture and the lack of professionalism keep popping up.

Det Sgt John White was at the centre of the reports into the planting of a gun at a traveller site, the planting of an explosive device at a communication mast, and the false arrests of Mark McConnell and Michael Peoples. White certainly had a discipline problem. And the inability to fire him when his conduct came to light was an issue.

But the culture in which he operated, and the lack of professionalism in the force, allowed his carry-on to prosper.

One example was the Silver Bullet module, which dealt with the arrest and detention of McConnell and Peoples on spurious allegations.

Bernard Conlon, a petty criminal and garda informer, alleged that both men had shown up at his house and threatened him with a "silver bullet".

The men were related to the McBrearty family, who were the target of serious harassment by a number of officers.

Great store was placed on Conlon's allegation.

He was brought to a line up to identify Peoples. The allegation fitted into a growing perception in the force of conspiracy among the wider McBrearty family. Ultimately, the two men were arrested and detained on spurious grounds, McConnell first in October 1998.

Before Peoples was arrested, Conlon came up with another allegation. In April 1999, he told the cops in Sligo that private detective Billy Flynn had visited him, and asked him to change evidence he gave against the McBreartys, offering a £10,000 bribe for doing so.

This time, there was no investigation. A serious allegation of criminality . . . allegedly perpetrated by a man who was a thorn in the side of the gardai . . .

went unanswered.

Why? Any probing would have exposed Conlon to be totally unreliable. Morris found that the Flynn allegation was a complete lie.

His report states: "If, as the tribunal is now told, it was not treated very seriously at the time, the question should have been asked by the gardai as to whether these allegations by Bernard Conlon were a lie. If he was lying, then this had serious implications for the allegations made by Bernard Conlon against Mark McConnell and Michael Peoples in respect of the alleged silver bullet threatf it could well have led to a reassessment of Mr Conlon's credibility and, as a consequence, the arrest of Michael Peoples on the 6th of May 1999 could have been avoided."

The result is obvious. Some of Conlon's allegations were treated seriously because they fitted into a pattern the gardai wanted to believe. Others weren't because they might expose the man as a compulsive liar. The modus operandi is one that has cropped up time and again in recent years where the gardai have been investigated. Decide the guilt and innocence and fit the facts accordingly.

When Conlon was rumbled, he claimed that White put him up to it. Morris concluded that the evidence wasn't strong enough to find that the detective was pulling Conlon's strings. But somebody was, and in a professional force dedicated to the highest standards, the whole edifice would have come tumbling down long before the necessity to hold a tribunal arose.

Political inaction over the decades has allowed standards to plunge to the level exposed by Morris. In the 1970s, then minister Conor Cruise O'Brien was told of beatings in custody. He didn't have a problem with that, he related in his autobiography. In the 1980s, the journalistic exposes of misconduct went unanswered by the government.

By the time Donegal came around in the 1990s, impunity was the order of the day among errant elements in the gardai.

Left largely to their own devices, it was inevitable that an "us against the world" culture would prosper in the police force and from it would flow the kind of shabby standards, blind eyes turned and circling of the wagons that ensued.

Now politics appears to be interfering with the much-needed reform. Instead of concentrating on bringing the gardai into the 21st century, McDowell's performance on Thursday suggests his focus is the reserve force.

The maintenance of proper morale through change, and instilling professionalism, are secondary to attaining a feather in his ministerial cap by having the reserve in place before his tenure in office ends next year. The reserve is a useful concept, one that in the long run will enhance policing.

The mad urgency to establish it, at a time when garda morale is on the floor, is hardly in the best interests of either the force or wider society.