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

It is a statement of fact that the Garda College was closed. That has resulted in skewed figures not just in County Meath but all over the country. Last year I allocated enough money for 1,000 new recruits. With the intake this week and at the end of the year we will see it will be closer to 800 if not slightly above 800 in the college, in training, or gone through the college. It is not 1,000 but it is not too far off. In similar recruitment campaigns before Covid-19, about 5,000 applied in that last campaign. In the most recent campaign, 5,000 people applied as well. We are actually not that far off. I am trying to be as ambitious as possible acknowledging that Covid-19 put a dent in the really positive numbers that we saw coming through the college coupled with a particular period in time where we have retirements because of when people went into the college about 30 years ago. However, nothing is off the table when it comes to increasing our Garda numbers. Very shortly, I hope to have something from the Garda Commissioner around increasing the age at which people can join. I have been engaging with my colleague in the Department of Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform around retirement age and how we can increase that and keep many of the gardaí we have. As was discussed with the Deputy’s colleague Deputy Daly earlier, it is about how can we make sure that the gardaí we have are taken off non-core duties which other civilian staff can do and how can we continue to invest in civilian staff and the Garda Reserve as well. When all of this comes together, and it is all coming together, we will see not just an increase in County Meath but an increase in Garda numbers and visibility across the country, which is what all of us want here.

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