Arming more Gardaí with tasers would be a natural step for the force.

That is according to Brendan O'Connor, President of the Garda Representative Association (GRA).

He was speaking amid renewed calls for more protection for officers, with 285 Gardaí assaulted last year.

Mr O'Connor told Newstalk Breakfast the taser is available in other countries, but not widely used.

"We often look to Scotland for leadership, and we see in Scotland where we have possibly a quarter of uniformed, frontline officers are STOs - Specially Trained Officers," he said.

"They carry tasers and they arm it and use it, the actual number of times that it's actually used is very, very few.

"The international experience is that... when offenders see the red dot on their chest, and know that there's a chance of them being maybe tasered, they often deescalate".

'Available to more officers'

Mr O'Connor said tasers are available, but only to certain Gardaí.

"We do have tasers, but they're only used by the Armed Support Unit," he said.

"When we call upon [the Armed Support Unit], particularly in rural occasions, it can be a very long-delayed response time.

"So we would look for tasers to be available [to] more officers and trained.

"Currently we only have your standard Guard with their protective equipment of a baton and handcuffs, and then we might have a local detective with a firearm.

"[There is] nothing in-between lethal and a baton, so we would see that as a natural step".

'Going in the wrong direction'

Former Garda assistant commissioner Pat Leahy said he believes this would go too far.

"I think we're going in the wrong direction to most other countries," he said.

"The taser has been welcomed in a lot of police forces across the world, but it's a de-escalation measure.

"They're trying to get away from using live ammunition - they want to get away from killing people, basically.

"Here in Ireland what we're doing is we're actually escalating when we think about taking on the taser.

"While I think something has to be done, I think this is probably a step to far for us.

"We have unique status in the world of policing, that the majority of uniformed members that you meet on the street... they're going to be unarmed.

"That is a huge status for us, and the rest of the world would love to be there.

"What we need to do is we need to look at the legislation protecting our members," he added.