On the roads, for the 251st time this year, members of the force were first on the scene of a road-accident tragedy. It was also the 251st time this year that a member of the force has had to knock on the door of a family member of a road accident victim to break the dreadful news.

These tasks were just a tiny snapshot of the duties of the garda force across the country.

But every single one of these acts of professionalism, duty or plain kindness, not to mention the sense of consensual community based policing involved, has been completely undermined this week by the publication of the latest three reports of the Morris tribunal.

The devastating findings and analysis leave the gardai a force condemned and one which is fighting for the very reputation of its members and their ability to hold their heads up as leaders within the communities they serve.

Yes, Mr Justice Frederick Morris's lengthy and painstaking investigations concentrate on the actions of a rogue group of gardai in Donegal whose behaviour "beggared belief".

But the inadequate response from garda headquarters to this insubordination and lawbreaking has resulted in the malaise of indiscipline and disaffection spreading widely among the force's 12,000 members. There has been a systemic failure of management, and references to a blurring of the distinction between legitimate industrial relations and indiscipline will strike a chord with the public who have been unhappy for a long time with both the service and attitude of some gardai.

Which is why everyone . . . including the force's own representative bodies . . . must welcome the speedy response by justice minister Michael McDowell to these reports.

It's true that the new, more straightforward disciplinary code should have been introduced sooner, but at least these Morris tribunal reports give it an almost unchallengeable moral authority.

Garda representative bodies will do themselves no favours if they oppose the introduction of this new code, or the new garda reserve which, judging by the phenomenal number of applications, has great popular appeal.

We now have new legislation covering the gardai which celebrates the need for fairness, transparency and the consensual policing of the 21st century. We have a new Garda Ombudsman Commission to deal with complaints. Better training methods are now in place and more reforms post-Abbeylara are promised. The fact that promotions boards will have a majority of independent lay members will help to allay dissatisfaction among gardai about the way management appointments are decided.

It's now up to the garda management and the gardai themselves to embrace these concepts and not fight them every inch of the way. The public does not want an inwardlooking, defensive and sullen police force. The mood is for sweeping change and a tackling of old work practices that were only able to survive in the autocratic Ireland of the last century.

Being a garda is difficult, challenging but ultimately exciting and rewarding. Individual gardai should be able to wear their badges with a sense of pride and vocation that lasts from the day they swear their oath to when they retire.