Fine Gael has described the announcement of the recruitment of 300 new civilian staff to the Garda as a "panicked" attempt to fulfil a broken Government promise.
Minister for Justice Michael McDowell also today confirmed the recruiting of a chief administrative officer and director of communications has been approved.
Fine Gael's Justice spokesman Jim O'Keeffe
Mr McDowell said: "The commencement of the Garda civilian senior executive recruitment campaign and the substantial increase in civilian support staff for An Garda Síochána reiterates the Government's ongoing commitment to modernising the force and redeploying desk-bound gardaí."
The Cabinet last week approved the move to recruit 300 administrative support staff for outside the Dublin area on top of the 300 already in the process of assuming duties in the capital.
But Fine Gael's Jim O'Keeffe said Mr McDowell had been promising civilisation since the last general election but had failed to deliver.
"The Garda civilianisation programme was one of the key measures promised by the PDs before the last general election. Five years later the civilianisation programme has barely started.
"With just two weeks left to the election, Michael McDowell is fooling no one with this last-minute attempt to fulfil this broken Government promise," Mr O'Keeffe said.
There has been some rank-and-file resistance within the force to civilisation, although the main Garda representative bodies support it in principal.