The Tánaiste's supporting calls for an urgent overhaul of the Gardaí at all levels.

Joan Burton is backing her colleague Frances Fitzgerald, who says there's major mistrust in the force.

The Tánaiste says she fully agrees that an overhaul is needed to help ordinary people have confidence in the force.

But she says the changes being planned by Minister Fitzgerald wouldn't have happened without Labour.

"After a very long campaign by the Labour Party, the government has agreed to have an independent Garda authority," she said.

"I think that will be one of the biggest contributors to the reform, if you like, of Garda practice, protocol and procedures in this country."

The issue of Garda oversight is being addressed at the first day of the MacGill Summer School in Co Donegal, from where our political correspondent Gavan Reilly reports;