O'Toole said the appointments of ranks from superintendent upwards should be "taken as far as possible from the political area". These positions are presently under the effective control of Minister for Justice Michael McDowell.

Speaking to the Sunday Tribune this weekend, O'Toole said that she was very impressed with the public appointments process that currently operated.

The former Boston police chief said it was her understanding that McDowell and the garda commissioner, Noel Conroy, were discussing ways to move the appointment of senior garda posts away from the appearance of political influence.

The chief inspector last week released a document on proposed reforms within the force, in which she indicated strong support for the civilianisation of senior garda management. This weekend she said it was her hope that these civilian positions would ultimately free up "sworn members" and allow them to take a greater involvement in what she described as "the core of policing . . .

work in the community".

O'Toole is a strong advocate of removing what she has called the "bright line" between community policing and specialisation. "Intelligence-driven police work does not come from some central unit so much as the police officer connected to the community, " she added.

She said that it would be a "tragedy" if young gardai are ignoring careers within non-specialist sections of the force, under the impression that they are more likely to gain promotion up the ranks by seeking assignment within specialist units such as the national criminal bureau (NBCI) and special detective unit (SDU).

O'Toole and her officials are presently conducting an examination of the numbers of gardai assigned to each individual division and specialist unit.

She would not speculate on which particular units are likely to be trimmed down in terms of personnel, although she singled out the Criminal Assets Bureau (CAB) describing the assetsrecovery unit as "among the best in the world".

O'Toole said that she was "very hopeful" that the high esteem the force has been historically held in by the public would return, despite recent scandals including the Barr report into the shooting dead of John Carty and the Morris reports into garda corruption in Donegal.