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

An Garda Síochána is committed to investing in leadership at all levels of the organisation through a clear understanding of requirements and focused development. Effective leadership enables the organisation to respond to changing demands with agility and to positively impact the culture of the organisation, obviously filtering down through it. Extensive provision is made for leadership development at all levels within An Garda Síochána, including both Garda members and staff. More than €44 million is provided for overall training purposes in 2024, an increase of 18% when compared with 2019.

Much of the training takes place in Templemore which has a section dedicated to professional development with the aim of designing, developing and delivering a range of leadership, management and professional development training courses. The needs are assessed in annual learning and development plans. I am informed that a number of programmes are delivered in-house annually, including on the following areas: behavioural leadership, strategic thinking, coaching, adaptive leadership change, and mentoring.

Tailored leadership training is designed to cater for Garda members and staff at all levels of the organisation. Specific senior management and behavioural leadership programmes are delivered to ranks from inspector up to chief superintendent and from higher executive officer up to principal officer grade, with a supervisory management and behavioural leadership programme delivered to sergeants and executive officers.

As the Deputy may be aware, An Garda Síochána also partners with external academic institutions to further support and embed leadership skills in the organisation. These include the Irish Management Institute, UCD's Smurfit Business School and the University of Limerick.

In 2022, in excess of 40 senior management personnel graduated from a dedicated Garda executive leadership programme, with a level 9 postgraduate diploma in leadership in policing delivered by the Irish Management Institute and accredited by University College Cork. Executive coaching supports were provided to all newly promoted senior management personnel as part of their development programme.

I assure the Deputy that given the nature of work carried out by gardaí, it is important that leadership qualities are developed, supported and enhanced so that the entire organisation can benefit.

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