The Garda Commissioner Noel Conroy has said that dress standards for the force fully comply with the intercultural approach adopted by An Garda Síochána.
Mr Conroy was outlining how he came to his decision in refusing to allow a variation of the uniform code to accommodate a Sikh who applied to join the Garda Reserve and who wished to wear a turban with his uniform.
The Garda rejected the call for any variation in the standard uniform.
The London-based Metropolitan Police Sikh Association accused the Garda Síochána of "racial discrimination" for refusing to allow the Sikh recruit to wear a turban in the course of his work.
The National Consultative Committee on Racism and Interculturalism also urged the Garda to review its decision and said it would write to the Garda Commissioner to seek a meeting to discuss a possible compromise on the issue.
In a statement on behalf of the Commissioner today, Superintendent Kevin Donohoe head of garda press and public relations said: "It is now accepted by many that a more modern, energetic approach is required to integrate diverse populations into a common liberal culture. An Garda Síochána believes that the intercultural approach can achieve this through reasonable and common-sense measures."
Supt Donohoe said that to effectively achieve integration of many cultures into a single organisation, would require a very fluid approach and that policies and practices would have to be altered and adjusted where it was appropriate.
He said that the Garda Commissioner was satisfied that the "intercultural approach and the decisions made within that framework, to date, is the right approach at this time for An Garda Síochána and the communities it is sworn to serve".
The statement said there was "no doubt that the Garda uniform and dress standards present unique issues in accommodating cultural diversity".
"These are challenges faced by all facets of Irish society as diversity and integration more and more become real issues.
"The Garda Síochána has, historically, been seen as providing an impartial police service, policing all sections of society equally. By accommodating variations to our standard uniform and dress, including those with religious symbolism, may well affect that traditional stance and give an image of An Garda Síochána which the Commissioner feels the public would not want," it stated.