Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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1. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality the number in each intake of gardaí, and the number who attested, in the past three years, in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [36637/25]

Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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I ask the Minister the number of gardaí in each intake, the number who attested over the previous three years and if he will make a statement on that. I also ask him to refer to the potential of reaching the target of 1,000 new recruits this year.

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

Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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There can be variation in the numbers going in to each intake but the one thing that is very clear is that in no intake at the Garda College was there as many trainees as the college had capacity to train. At no stage did 200 or even close to 200 attest. In some cases, the figures were far below that. The difficulty is that the Government has been talking for quite some time now about 1,000 gardaí per year being attested. We are nowhere near this. It makes me inclined to accept the position of the Garda Commissioner when he said it was just not possible to train 1,000 gardaí this year. Does the Minister agree with that?

Last year, the numbers trained in Templemore were around 400 short of that target. Does the Minister accept that he, the Department and the Garda still do not have a grip on the recruitment and retention crisis? How many does he expect to attest in total this year?

Jim O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay South, Fianna Fail)
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The programme for Government commitment is that we will recruit 5,000 gardaí during the five-year term of the Government. I am not too worried about whether we get to 1,000 each year and if they are evenly spread over the five years. The priority is to get to 5,000. We need to increase the numbers within the force.

On the retention crisis, the number of resignations from An Garda Síochána is pretty small. In 2024, approximately only 1% of attested members of An Garda Síochána resigned from the force. That is a pretty low number when compared to the PSNI or other police forces in the UK.

On the future, I am trying to recruit as many gardaí this year as possible. I cannot give the Deputy a figure now as to how many but I ask him to give me some ideas. When I was on the backbenches, I suggested proposals such as increasing the age that someone could join to above 35 and extending the retirement age. I am open to Deputy Carthy's ideas.

Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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Will there be five intakes this year or next year in the Garda College? He might also indicate if there are plans to increase the capacity to allow intakes of 250 trainees.

Has the Minister examined the impact of the rate of payment of the Garda training allowance? We know there was an increase but where the very changes he has referred to in the age profile of those joining the gardaí are concerned and how older people generally have more financial commitments, we are told by the representative organisations that the training allowance is still not sufficient to capture people in that demographic. If the Minister is looking for an idea, there is one off the bat - increase the training allowance, increase the intake numbers permitted and ensure we go beyond increasing not just the number of applications. We need the number of gardaí to increase.

Jim O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay South, Fianna Fail)
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On the intakes this year, there will be four. There was one in June, there will be another in August and there will be another before the end of the year. There will be approximately four intakes this year. Some years, there can be five but it is dependent upon each year and how the schedule operates.

On the proposal to increase the training allowance, that is something I will certainly look at. It is something we have indicated in the programme of Government. At present, it is €354 per week during training.

I am confident about the immediate future. It is significant that 6,700 people expressed interest during the recruitment campaign. It is also noteworthy that, of that 6,700 who expressed interest in February, some of them were already starting in the Garda College. Certainly, many of them will be starting in the next intake. Historically, there was a delay turning expressions of interest into trainees on the ground. That is changing and I am pleased to see it is speeding up.