Pa Daly (Kerry, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I hear what the Minister is saying with regard to approaching the figure of 15,000.

As the Minister knows, the Joint Committee on Justice went to Templemore. Apart from the number attesting, there are about 140 postgraduates undertaking courses there. It has been mentioned to me in passing that Templemore is stuck for space and it is seeking to obtain other venues to carry out more specialised training. Has the college ever considered, in order to accelerate the numbers in a quicker way, opening up another training facility to attest gardaí or else to undertake more of the hybrid training model that we saw to some extent during Covid?

Gardaí are telling me that they feel stretched. For example, County Kerry is down 20 gardaí on the position prior to Covid and they are stretched in trying to maintain the level of service they had then. In February, the available strength was 13,748, which has decreased since December 2010, when it was 14,377.

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