The State pathologist, Dr John Harbison, has offered to train family doctors in forensic medicine. He said doctors needed to be trained to deal with this branch of medicine which often involved "major" criminals, taking hair samples, nail scrapings, sexual assault situations and certifying times of death.
A motion that a national network of designated Garda doctors be set up to provide forensic medical services was passed.
Dr Harbison wrote this week to the Department of Justice saying he was interested in the training of GPs who were called to Garda stations and crime scenes.
The motion was proposed by Dr Declan Murphy, a Kilkenny GP. He said when the i Garda now needed a doctor for any medical service in connection with a prisoner in a Garda station, "they telephone any GP whose name comes to mind".
He said the doctors felt obliged to go to the Garda station "even if they do not care for the work or feel they are unqualified".
He warned that doctors were becoming increasingly legally exposed by doing this form of work. "It is high time the service was professionalised. We should have designated police surgeons for this type of work."