James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I am committed to supporting An Garda Síochána in achieving their objectives through recruitment, Irish language development, awareness, promotion and engagement. The Garda Commissioner is responsible for the management and administration of An Garda Síochána, including the allocation of resources, including Garda members, to a given division, district or station. An Garda Síochána issued a directive in 2018 to ensure that only members with the appropriate Irish-language skills would transfer to Gaeltacht stations, with a view to increasing the number of bilingual personnel in these stations. The Garda authorities are also committed to ensuring that a policing service is provided through the Irish-language medium in divisions with a Gaeltacht station as far as is possible in the overall context of providing a safe and effective policing service nationwide. I am advised that as of 6 December, 1,498 gardaí declared competency in Irish, of whom 90 were attached to the Donegal division. I am further advised that there are a number of initiatives in place to facilitate improvements in spoken Irish in the Donegal division, including attendance by gardaí at Gaeltacht courses, as recently as October 2023.

An Garda Síochána remains committed to the Irish language. A new Irish language strategy for 2022 to 2025 was published in March 2022. The strategy aims to strengthen Irish-language services within An Garda Síochána and to ensure compliance with statutory language obligations. It includes a long-term goal of ensuring all Gaeltacht Garda stations are fully bilingual. As outlined in the strategy, An Garda Síochána will achieve its objectives through recruitment, Irish-language development, awareness, promotion and engagement. Studies in the Irish language will remain part of the policing BA delivered to all trainee gardaí in the Garda college, Templemore. As the Deputy will be aware, there is now a dedicated Irish-language recruitment stream as part of each Garda recruitment campaign. I am pleased to say that, to date, 24 candidates from the 2022 competition's Irish stream have been successful at interview stage.

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