A prominent criminal lawyer has called the police inappropriate for approaching a judge for support to limit the number of people on electronic bail.
Police say they have reached breaking point over electronic monitoring, due to limited resources and budget constraints.
In December last year, police told the Chief District Court Judge that staff are stretched monitoring the 280 people on e-bail and asked for her support to limit the number to 250.
Judge Jan-Marie Doogue says she has not agreed to the proposal.
Criminal Bar Association president Tony Bouchier says it is inappropriate for police to ask the judiciary to do something because of budgetary matters.
Mr Bouchier says the law on electronic bail is not subject to finances and Judge Doogue was correct in her response.
"It's a mistake to go to the judiciary and ask them to do something because of a budget matter is really inappropriate. The law on e-bail entitles people to make e-bail applications notwithstanding the budget."
Police assistant commissioner of operations Nick Perry says it was never the intention of police to interfere - but rather to give judges notice about their situation.
Mr Perry says the 38 police staff who monitor such bail are struggling to keep up because the number of people on it has more than doubled to 280 since the system was introduced seven years ago.
"It does reach a point where you've got to think, can we continue on on this basis or not.
"Of course, one option is to bring in more people - but given what we've got to think about in terms of funding and so on, we're looking across the justice sector what arrangements we could put in place and hopefully save dollars."
Mr Perry says the Police Prosecutions Service has been told not to accept any more applications until a new way of managing the system is in place, which he expects will be by next week.
