Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Berry for this important question. The Government is committed to doing all that we can to build stronger safer communities. A key part of that has to be supporting An Garda Síochána, increasing the numbers, resourcing and equipping it properly. That is why we have given the highest allocation ever to An Garda Síochána in budget 2023 of €2.1 billion. This level of funding will provide for a steady pipeline, if I may use that phrase, of new gardaí in coming years. The Government will continue to work closely with the Commissioner to ensure that members of An Garda Síochána are fully supported. The funding allocation we provided this year will fund the recruitment of up to 1,000 gardaí and 400 additional Garda staff this year. Those Garda staff are also important because they free up gardaí to do front-line policing duties.

The Government is steadfast in our commitment to support the Commissioner bringing the number of gardaí to 15,000 and above in the coming years. The 15,000 is not a ceiling; we want to go above and beyond that. There have been challenges with recruitment due to the Covid pandemic restrictions. Templemore College was closed during the time of the financial crash. When it finally reopened and was beginning to ramp up, it closed again twice as a result of the Covid pandemic. However, we are now back in a period of annual recruitment campaigns. The Commissioner assures me that with a steady pipeline of recruits to the Garda College, recruitment will continue to meet the demands of the organisation.

There has been almost a 10% increase in the number of Garda members since 2015 when we really began recruiting again. The high level of interest in the recent recruitment campaign is somewhat encouraging. Almost 5,000 people applied to be a garda through the application process which closed in recent weeks. Less than 1% of Garda members resigned last year. I never gloss over that figure. We should always probe that, but it was less than 1%. We obviously live in a country with full employment. Between the 90 gardaí who entered Templemore in November, 133 in the first intake this year, 154 more last week and 50 more who have accepted places but prefer to go in later in the year we now have more than 400 gardaí in training in Templemore or indicating that they will begin their training this year, with further classes due to start in July, September and likely December.

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