Pa Daly (Kerry, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The Minister will probably be aware that the justice committee visited the Garda Training College in November. We were impressed by the level of professionalism in Templemore. The college was anxious to stress that it was never actually closed during Covid, only that a hybrid model was introduced. We have called for that to continue. Templemore has the capacity for 1,000 recruits per year. The figures later this year will be interesting.

I understand that in some counties, only two new Garda recruits have been deployed in recent years. The emphasis has been on deploying them to cities instead. This has resulted in many cohorts or teams of community gardaí being reduced in size. It is vital that their numbers be increased.

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