Government control over the Garda Síochána has been likened to the arrangements found in a police state.
Prof Dermot Walsh, chair of law at the University of Limerick, said the failure to make express provision for policing in the Constitution left the executive "in the driving seat" in relation to this vital function in society.
Decisions about Garda size, powers, priorities and accountability rested with the executive acting by itself and with the legislature, Prof Walsh told a conference marking the 70th anniversary of the Constitution.
"These are not issues which should be left fully exposed to the cut and thrust of party politics, and the prospects of change at the whim of whatever party should happen to be in power at any particular point in time. "Such a huge concentration of police power in the hands of central government in the absence of adequate constitutional checks and balances is uncomfortably close to the arrangements associated with a police state."
Prof Walsh said the office of Garda commissioner should be established constitutionally in the same way as that of the attorney general. Barrister Dr Richard Humphreys said the Belfast Agreement confronted the people in the Republic with a significant contradiction in terms of constitutional principles and the national mindset.
"We collectively aspire to unity, but also in certain respects to privilege the Irish identity over the British. The Good Friday agreement tells us that we cannot do both. The question to be answered by the conduct of the government and people of this part of the island in the coming years is whether we are prepared to resolve those tensions . . ."
