Garda strength should be increased to 12,000 as the best defence against crime, the general secretary of the Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors, Mr George Maybury, told the forum.
The retirement age should be raised from 57 to 60, to keep the number of highly-trained officers in the force, and the substantial, ongoing increase in the supervisory ranks' workload must be compensated for, the association said in its submission. It also warned against any further increase in the workload.
The AGSI submission proposes a police authority to liaise between the force and government departments. Such an authority should reflect community interests, it said.
Mr Maybury said increases in domestic violence and paedophilia had taken up a lot of police time and demanded extensive training. His association supported an inter-agency approach to these problems.
There was no comparison between the amount of work his members had to do today, and what they did five years ago. There was also a huge increase in stress levels. They were arguing for an increase in the Garda welfare service to deal with this.
There was also a need for more opportunities for advancement in the force. "At the moment only one in every 13 sergeants will make it to the rank of inspector," he said.
The chairman of the forum, Prof Bryan MacMahon, suggested that the increased stress levels he spoke of were true for the whole of society. Teachers reported greater stress in the schools, he said, and doctors spoke of their fear of being sued.
Mr Maybury said he accepted that, but argued that there was a need for more monetary compensation and more welfare officers.
He denied a suggestion that Ireland was a heavily policed society, citing a study from the Centre for the Study of Public Order in Leicester University which placed Ireland fourth-worst in European countries in terms of a police-people ratio.