The Tánaiste and Justice Minister says she was unaware of the scale of the latest crisis in the Gardaí until last week.

Frances Fitzgerald has broken her silence in the Dáil, saying her department was first told in the summer of 2014 that concerns about breath tests had been examined and no issue was found.

She says in a letter last year she was informed that an audit had now been launched, and was informed last month that the review would not be concluded until June.

The Tánaiste says she found out how big a problem this was, when Gardai revealed it last Thursday:

Meanwhile the Policing Authority has demanded access to all Garda reports on the breath test and speeding conviction scandals, by the end of this week.

In a hard hitting statement the authority says that despite months of questioning, it has still not been provided with the full internal Garda reports.

The authority also hits out at Gardaí, saying it has not been provided with a clear sense of how these matters have been handled to date.

The Oireachtas Justice Committee has confirmed the Garda Comissioner has accepted an invitation to appear before on Thursday to answer questions on the controversies.

Earlier, the Taoiseach promised an independent external review of the Gardaí as part of dealing with the one million fake breath tests scandal, along with thousands of people being wrongly convicted in court of speeding offences.

Taoiseach Enda Kenny says restoring confidence in Gardaí is paramount:

Fianna Fáil says it's unable to express confidence in the Garda Commissioner.

Party leader Micheál Martin says questions need to be answered by the Tánaiste too: