Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú)
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1004. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality the number of persons recruited to An Garda Síochána in each of the past five years, and to date in 2023, in tabular form. [17766/23]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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As the Deputy will be aware, under the Garda Síochána Act 2005 (as amended), the Garda Commissioner is responsible for the administration and management of An Garda Síochána, including responsibility for the recruitment, training and deployment of Garda members. As Minister, I have no role in such matters.

I am however assured that Garda management keeps the distribution of resources under continual review. I am advised that this is considered in the context of crime trends and policing priorities, to ensure the optimum use of these resources.

Since 2015, the budget for An Garda Síochána has increased by approximately €672m, or 46%. This has allowed for sustained and ongoing recruitment and as Minister, I am committed to delivering the necessary resources to bring the number of Garda Members to 15,000 and beyond.

As of the end of March 2023, there were 14,036  Garda members across the country. This represents an increase of almost 10% since 2015 when there were 12,816 Garda members throughout the country. I also want to acknowledge that Garda recruitment was significantly and understandably disrupted when the Garda college at Templemore was necessarily closed during the COVID pandemic.

The Government has provided funding to support 1,000 new Gardaí this year and we are seeing more Garda recruits enter Templemore approximately every 11 weeks. The capacity of the Garda College will also expand to allow up to 225 Garda trainees for the four remaining planned intakes of 2023.

With this momentum building through the year, we remain committed to the target of 1,000 new Gardaí this year. An Garda Síochána also recently launched a new recruitment campaign which closed on 14 April 2023. I would like to encourage anyone called as part of the 2022 or 2023 competition not to defer but to make sure they’re fully fit and ready to take up the opportunity.

My Department and I engage regularly with the Garda authorities with a view to ensuring that every possible support is in place to deliver on this level of recruitment.

The table below, provided to me by the Garda authorities, outlines the number of new Gardaí recruited in each of the past five years and to date in 2023.

I would also like to take this opportunity to inform you that the above figures refer to the number of Garda Trainees who startin the Garda College. There after the recruit must undertake Phase 1 successfully before they are attested.

I am advised by the Garda authorities that Phase 1 takes around 6 months to complete.

I am also advised that due to the gap from recruitment to attestation, it is often the case that a person would be recruited in one year and attest the following year.

Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú)
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1005. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality the number of gardaí who took early retirement in each of the past five years and to date in 2023, in tabular form [17767/23]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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While the Garda Commissioner is responsible for the administration and management of An Garda Síochána, including human resourcing matters, the Government is committed to ensuring that An Garda Síochána has the resources it needs to continue to provide a world class policing service.

Since 2015, the Government has increased the budget for An Garda Síochána by approximately €672m, or 46%. This has allowed for sustained and ongoing recruitment. The Commissioner and his team have assured me that the target to recruit 1,000 new sworn Gardaí in 2023 will be achieved this year. This year's Garda recruitment campaign closed on 14 April and will ensure the steady pipeline of new Gardaí continues.

The table below, provided by the Garda authorities, outlines the number of Gardaí who took early retirement (Cost Neutral Early Retirements) in each of the past five years up to 12 April 2023.

Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú)
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1006. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality the number of gardaí who have left the force in each of the past five years, and to date in 2023, in tabular form. [17768/23]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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As the Deputy will appreciate the Garda Commissioner is operationally responsible for the management and administration of An Garda Síochána including HR matters.

However, I can assure the Deputy that Government is committed to ensuring An Garda Síochána have the resources they need to perform their vital role in the community.

It is important to emphasise that, of the over 14,000 sworn members currently working in the Garda organisation, just over 100 resigned last year – this represents less than 1% of total Garda members. Any increase in the number of resignations should be viewed in this context.

The table below, provided by the Garda authorities, outlines the number of Gardaí who have resigned for each of the past five years, representing between 0.5% and 0.7% of the total number of Gardaí.  A further 24 resigned up to 28 February 2023, the latest day for which figures are available. 

I was pleased to note the Garda Síochána Culture Audit 2022 found that job satisfaction was high among Garda personnel. The independently conducted survey reflected that Garda members are proud of An Garda Síochána are motivated to serve communities and protect people from harm.

The Commissioner has acknowledged however that, while there are many positives within the service, it is clear that the organisation has more work to do to give its people the support and tools they need to do their jobs efficiently and effectively, to ensure people feel they are treated fairly, and they are being supported in their very challenging and pressurised work.

I understand that a number of initiatives to improve morale in the work place have been put in place in recent years along with a suite of measures to support the mental health needs of the employees.

These include the Employee Assistance Service (available to all Garda members, staff, retired members and their families); a 24/7/365 telephone helpline and counselling service provided by Inspire Wellbeing; and a Peer Support Network.

Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú)
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1007. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality the number of gardaí who have been assaulted while on duty in each of the past five years, and to date in 2023, in tabular form. [17769/23]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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We are all immensely grateful to members of our police service for their outstanding dedication and commitment to serving the public and for the important role that they play in our society.

For the most part, the relationship between Gardaí and the public is one built on very significant trust. We only have to look to the fact that An Garda Síochána is a largely unarmed, and yet hugely effective, community policing service.

As the Deputy will be aware, an assault on a member of An Garda Síochána, a prison officer, a member of the fire brigade, ambulance personnel, or a member of the Defence Forces is already an offence under section 19 of the Criminal Justice (Public Order) Act 1994.

A person convicted of such an offence is currently liable to a fine, or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 7 years, or both. The latter penalty was increased from a maximum term of 5 years in 2006.

However, the Government is committed to taking further action to protect Gardaí and frontline workers as necessary.  To that end, I intend to bring forward an amendment to the Public Order Act to increase the maximum penalty available for assaulting a peace officer to 12 years.

These changes will send a very clear message that attacks on frontline workers will not be tolerated, and will be dealt with robustly.

The table below, furnished to me by the Garda authorities, outlines the number of Gardaí who have been assaulted while on active duty in the State in each year of the past five years and to date in 2023, as requested by the Deputy. 

Number of Gardaí who reported sustaining an occupational injury as a result of being assaulted 2018 to Date (as of 14/04/2023)

Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú)
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1008. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality the number of gardaí who have taken stress leave in each of the past five years, and to date in 2023, in tabular form. [17770/23]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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I can assure the Deputy that An Garda Síochána is committed to protecting the health, safety and welfare of all Garda members and Garda staff.

I also want to make it clear that I am very aware of how stressful and difficult the work of members of An Garda Síochána can be. We only have to look at the fatal incidents to see how, in the face of the most tragic and distressing circumstances, Gardaí continue to perform their vital role in the community. There are therefore, very properly, a number of support systems in place to help Gardaí address issues of stress and mental health, including an Employee Assistance Service as well as, trauma counselling and peer support.

Last year An Garda Síochána launched 'Keeping Our People Supported', the Health and Wellbeing Strategy Statement and Action Plan 2021-2023. This plan identified three key goals to improve the health and welfare of Gardaí.

These goals were to identify, communicate and enhance existing resources to promote health, wellbeing and work ability across the organisation, to develop partnerships with key stakeholders inside and outside the organisation in order to to build capacity, and to provide support and advice.

A new wellbeing app KOPS ("Keeping Our People Supported") was launched as part of the strategy. The app makes support available to members of An Garda Síochána on a 24/7 basis and can be accessed on any mobile device. It was created to ensure members who may be distressed and in need of urgent assistance can access the supports available to them at any time. 

In terms of sick leave, the Deputy will be aware that the Garda Commissioner is responsible for the management and administration of An Garda Síochána, including staffing and personnel matters. As Minister I have no direct role in this regard. 

I am advised, however, that absences recorded on the organisation's Sickness Absence Management System are split into three categories: ordinary illness, occupational injury/illness arising from duty, and critical illness.  Each of these categories have sub-categories, with 'mental health' included as a sub-category of ordinary illness.

I am further informed that there is currently no sub-category recording absences due to stress, anxiety or depression but in some cases, this is recorded under the mental health sub-category or in the comments field against another sub-category. 

An Garda Síochána provided the below table using the mental health sub-category for the number of members recorded as taking sickness absence due to mental health illness.

It is important to note that there is no guarantee that all absences due to stress, anxiety or depression have been recorded under he mental health sub-category, and that the data acquired from the annual Commissioner reports are correct at the time each yearly report is compiled. 

Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú)
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1009. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality the number of ongoing investigations into bullying within the gardaí. [17771/23]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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As the Deputy will appreciate, the Garda Commissioner is responsible for the management and administration of Garda business under section 26 of the Garda Síochána Act 2005 (as amended). The Commissioner is also responsible for the maintenance of Garda discipline under the Garda Síochána (Discipline) Regulations 2007 (as amended). As Minister, I have no role in internal Garda human resources matters, or the investigation of any complaints.

To be of assistance to the Deputy I have contacted the Garda authorities and have been advised that as of 17 April, there are 20 active bullying/harassment cases within An Garda Síochána.