Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I believe so, if we want to go beyond 1,000 trainees per year, which we need to. The Covid-19 pandemic set us back. We cannot keep talking about the pandemic but it slowed down the engine that had started to speed up prior to it. If we want to go beyond 1,000 trainees, we need to look at matters in a different way. That was exactly why I established the committee. I did so to see what more we can do in the college and beyond it. The committee is considering how gardaí are trained without in any way impacting the training itself because gardaí come out of the college with high and recognisable qualifications. It is about finding what we can do. To everybody's point, we need to consider people who are starting later in life and who have significant commitments. It is not always easy for them to uproot and move to Templemore for however many weeks and then move to a station for training. We need to look at all of that in the round. When we have full employment and there is a lot of movement within our economy overall, how do we ensure we attract and retain the best people?