Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) Chief Constable Sir Hugh Orde today launched a stinging attack on the North's Policing Board.
In remarks during a question and answer session with public relations professionals at a breakfast briefing in central Dublin, the Chief Constable said that even the PSNI's youngest new recruits were more focused on the force's strategy than the body charged with its oversight.
Sir Hugh hit out at elected members of the Board who he alleged were being distracted by sectarian arguments that had nothing to do with policing.
He said: "I get more strategic questions, I have to say, from my junior officers than I do currently from the Police Board. Because the Police Board's gone a bit tribal at the moment."
Afterwards, he said that despite the Board being there to hold him to account he is often not consulted on serious policing issues.
"Look at the questions that are asked at Policing Board," he said.
"Bearing in mind the purpose of the Policing Board is to hold me to account and to build confidence in policing... if you get a question from one party, you get a counter question from the other party, in a way not so much about policing but it's about a different political debate.
"A number of times in the last few months I have actually not been involved in the debate. The debate has been across me between different representatives rather than with me."
But Sir Hugh stressed the Policing Board was generally a success in getting long-time political adversaries to come together to transform policing in Northern Ireland.
"There are people now engaging in policing who for 38 years have disengaged in policing. So it's bound to be a real challenge, I just hope it moves on fairly quickly to looking at the real issues," he said.
The Chief Constable also revealed his belief that the coming year would be his hardest to date as the force comes into closer contact with communities it was traditionally estranged from.
"I think it's going to a tough year because the expectations are now really high," he said.
"I think it will be a bit of a rollercoaster around confidence. We've got another marching season coming up, it's hard to second guess how that will go but I'm pretty confident it will be fine.
"So it's just a gut feeling that it's going to be a tough year."
Sir Hugh said he was expecting further criticism of policing with the public inquiries into the deaths of Robert Hamill, Billy Wright and Rosemary Nelson.
"There's an ever-increasing demand to fuel public inquiries who can ask what they want and demand whatever they want," he said.
"I have more and more police officers, plus a full-time Assistant Chief [Constable], working full-time to supply this voracious appetite, and we will get criticised for not being quick enough.
"So one of the ironies is that trying to be as transparent as we can and providing everything we can from legacy systems, which no-one understands anymore, will lead to me being criticised."
Earlier, Chief Constable Orde said Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams has now accepted there is only one legitimate police service in Northern Ireland.