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

Budget 2024 provided a budget allocation of more than €2.35 billion to An Garda Síochána. A 25% increase on 2020, this will allow for the sustained recruitment of Garda recruits.

Recruitment is gathering real momentum. The number of recruits in the Garda training college continue to increase with a total of 747 trainees last year. That was the highest intake since 2018.

There are currently three classes in the Garda College, two having entered in 2023 and one earlier this month. They will be attesting in: June, September and December. Based on the current numbers of last year and this year, indications are that between 600 and 700 new gardaí will attest this year.

Earlier this month, 185 new recruits entered the college. This is the first class of 2024. This is the highest intake that we have had since the closure of the college due to Covid-19. We have further intakes planned for July, September and December of this year. The target is to try to reach that 200 figure. We have been close in this intake. There is no reason we should fail to exceed that in the next intake which would mean between 800 and 1,000, the target that we set ourselves this year, can still be achieved.

Of course, we are doing everything that we can to not only encourage more into the college but making sure that we retain those that we have, from looking at financial issues to issues around health and stress in the work while also making sure that those who want to stay longer can retire later. The later involves legislation that I will bring forward in the coming weeks to try to address that as quickly as possible.

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