Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

A number of steps are being taken to try to identify why members are leaving, but I must stress that over the past seven years the average number of members leaving and choosing different career paths has been between 0.5% and 0.7%. It is at just under 1% now, so there has not been a major loss of gardaí. There has been an increase in recruitment. There was a significant influx many years ago when the college was open. Unfortunately, we are now in a period when a larger number of gardaí are retiring than in previous years. The only way to respond to this is by ensuring we get numbers into Templemore and through the college.

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