Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

In 2012 and 2013, the Public Appointments Service received a record number of expressions of interest in joining the Garda reserve. That is probably linked to the new recruitment campaign and people wanted to show they were interested. Twenty-three of the first batch of 100 recruits were members of the reserve, 17 former reserve members were in the second batch of 100 new recruits and 13 former reserve members were in the third batch of 100 new full-time recruits. I explained that recruitment to the Garda reserve is ongoing but was slow in 2014 because of resource issues in the Public Appointments Service, which decided to concentrate on recruitment to the full-time force. This is expected to change in 2015 and the new powers will be rolled out to the Garda reserve shortly. If someone has been in the Garda reserve, it is a factor that the Public Appointments Service takes into account when doing interviews. It is relevant experience and is an important aspect of an applicant's CV when a decision has been taken.

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