Jim O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay South, Fianna Fail)

I thank Deputy Carthy for his question. As every Member of the House knows, a visible Garda presence is really essential to ensuring the public feel a sense of safety. It is also essential from the Government's perspective and from the objective within the programme for Government to build safe and secure communities for the public to enjoy.

In February, there was the first Garda recruitment campaign of 2025. I am pleased to say this competition was particularly successful and more than 6,700 applications were received in response to it. This demonstrates the continued interest that exists in a career in An Garda Síochána.

I want to answer the specifics of Deputy Carthy's questions. In 2022, there were only two intakes of gardaí into Templemore. These were intakes of 24 and 92 trainees, with 25 and 86 gardaí attested from those intakes. There were a total of 111 gardaí attested in 2022, out of a total of 116 who commenced.

In 2023, there were five intakes of 135, 154, 174, 174 and 109 trainees. Of those, there was a total of 707 attested. In 2023, 746 were taken in and 707 attested. In 2024, there were four intakes, with a total of 630 taken in and, to date, 438 trainee gardaí attested from the first three intakes. The individual totals for these three intakes are 169, 149 and 120. The final intake of 2024 is due to attest later this year. Deputy Carthy can see there is a variation in the numbers for each of the three years that he asked about because it is dependent on whether there are four or five intakes.

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