Dermot Ahern (Louth, Fianna Fail)

On the existing panel, I understand approximately 150 applicants are available for recruitment. These are trainees who are called strictly in order as placed on the panel. There is also an additional 200 people on the panel who have not completed medical, physical and vetting tests. The issue of how many will be brought on from this panel to the new one is dependent on the number of retirements this year. It is anticipated that fewer people than retired last year will retire this year but we will not know this until the end of the year. It is our intention to keep garda levels as high as possible.

On civilianisation, there were virtually no civilians working with the Garda Síochána five or six years ago. Currently, there are 2,100 civilians in this regard, which is a significant proportion in comparison with the number of Garda Síochána. Obviously, the drive is to ensure that as many garda as possible are out on the streets and not in the Garda barracks. However, it will never be the case that no gardaí will be in the garda stations because there is obviously specialised work that can be done only by Garda Síochána owing to security issues. This requires a continuation of gardaí working hand-in-hand with civilian staff in Garda stations.

On community gardaí, I do not know the proportion of community gardaí but there has been a significant ramping up of the numbers of community garda.

As the Deputy is aware, the Garda Commissioner and I have relaunched the community policing model . I understand that at the last count, the number of dedicated community gardaí whose only job is to do community work was well over 1,000. Every garda who is out on the beat is regarded as a community garda. The number of specialised community gardaí is well over 1,000.

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