Mr. Drew Harris:

If I might, I will address the last point in respect of recruitment to the organisation and retention. I have to say that between 2013 and 2023, the context in which we employ individuals has changed entirely. In 2013 there was no recruitment to the organisation. In fact, active efforts were made to reduce the size of the organisation in terms of allowing people glide paths, in effect, out of the organisation and around career breaks, etc. That situation has changed. We are in a position of very active recruitment, coupled with a very active jobs market which is in effect a global jobs market. Individuals who work for An Garda Síochána are skilled. Other employers seek those skills and actively seek them out in trying to attract them into their organisations. I have to say that it is not just the private sector. Other police services elsewhere in the world are very active in respect of this, particularly the Western Australian Police Force. We have also had individuals resign from the organisation and go to other parts of the public sector. We are very conscious of that, and in response to it, Ms Cooke is leading on a group that has met four times in respect of what else might be done on the retention of individuals within An Garda Síochána. We have conducted our own exit interviews, which have given us qualitative data that we will want to build up over time. We also know, from our own internal audit that we conducted last year, some of the stressors within the organisation. We have an action plan to deal with those in terms of the amount of work people are taking on, the supports they feel they get from their supervisors and from the organisation, and also issues around implementation of ICT.

We have an overwhelming amount of work ongoing which is within the change category, some of which is driven by the Commission on the Future of Policing in Ireland and subsequently, A Policing Service for the Future.

Coupled with that, the environment in which we police has become more difficult. We seem to be dealing with more traumatic situations and we are certainly dealing with a good deal more abuse and assault than Garda members might have faced ten, 15 or 20 years ago. That is regrettable, but it is also an international trend in terms of what is happening to police services throughout the world. We are not immune to factors which are changing society and their view of policing throughout Europe, in effect. What we can say is that by and large we have missed the very worst of what has happened to other organisations. Certainly, we do not in any way underestimate how difficult the work is, the support that is required for individual members and the support that Government provides in terms of things that we have asked for and have been supported on, including increasing the allowance for students joining the organisation, increasing the sentence for assault on gardaí and improving the terms and conditions of gardaí. All of these are things that we have taken forward and I have taken forward as Commissioner. We have done an awful lot. We also recognise that we invest a lot in our people through training and we want them to stay in the organisation if at all possible. Anything that we might do, we will be doing.