Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The 92 recruits started. Possibly some of them may have dropped out. Sometimes when you start a job it might not take you too long to realise that it might not be the job for you. We know of many people who started in other careers. I remember when I started in the bank many moons ago, we used to start the training course in tranches of six and maybe after the first few days one or two could have dropped off and said that it was not for them. We have to accept that some people in good faith take up the jobs but decide that this is not what they wanted. Sometimes they might get a better offer. We are in a very competitive labour market. As Members know, unemployment is at its lowest level ever. There are more people working in this country than ever before. It is competitive but we as a Government are focused on continuing to recruit more gardaí through Templemore. There will be 200 every 11 weeks throughout 2023. There is a strong pipeline of recruits and the Government has set a target of 15,000 gardaí and 4,000 Garda staff for a total workforce of 19,000 people.

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