James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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Absolutely. Earlier this year, the recruitment call was successful, with more than 11,000 expressions of interest. The first intake started yesterday, with 92 trainees. We expect to take in 200 every eight weeks, beginning in February 2023, to bring a total of 1,000 people into An Garda Síochána through the current recruitment process. The recruitment process has been successful in the sense we will get 1,000 gardaí from it. There have been delays in getting the first group into Templemore. That has mostly been a result of Covid. It has been a matter of getting the training machine up and going again once it had closed down. We have it going again and fully set up now and the momentum is there to keep trainees coming in. We are confident we will hit the 1,000 mark by the end of next year, although some will still be in training, with those who start next December still not qualifying for a period after that.

We will start a new recruitment process early next year. We have completed the last process. It was not perfect. We will look at where we can streamline and speed up the recruitment process. Applicants like to see momentum too. If they are waiting around, they might find alternative careers and pathways, which is natural for younger people too. We will look at how we can do that. There are certainly lessons we can take from the recruitment process.