Pa Daly (Kerry, Sinn Fein)
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424. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality the number of trainees, actual and projected, who have attested into the gardaí in each of the years 2020 to date in 2023, in tabular form. [19502/23]

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 can however assure the Deputy that the Government is committed to ensuring that An Garda Síochána has the resources it needs, which is reflected in an allocation of over €2 billion in Budget 2023.

This level of funding will provide a steady pipeline of new Gardaí in the coming years, supporting the recruitment of up to 1,000 Gardaí and 400 additional Garda staff this year, with new recruits to enter the Garda College approximately every 11 weeks.

The below table, furnished to me by the Garda authorities, gives figures for the number of Garda Trainees who startedin the Garda College for the years requested. There after the recruit must undertake Phase 1 successfully before they are attested.

Please note that this information is based upon operational data which has been provided by An Garda Síochána and may be liable to change.

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.

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

Please note that this information is based upon operational data which has been provided by An Garda Síochána and may be liable to change.

In the interest of transparency, Garda workforce figures are published on gov.ie and regularly updated by my Department, from information supplied by the Garda Authorities. The allocation of Probationer Gardaí, who have attested from the Garda College, up to the end of January 2023 can be found at the following link:

www.gov.ie/en/publication/7c2e6-probationer-gardai/.

Pa Daly (Kerry, Sinn Fein)
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425. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality the number of gardaí that have been redeployed in 2020, 2021 and 2022 as a result of the hiring of civilian/non-sworn staff. [19504/23]

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 for the recruitment, training and deployment of Garda members and staff. As Minister, I have no role in such matters.

As the Deputy will be aware, the Government is committed to doubling the number of Garda staff to 4,000. The purpose of this policy is, in part, to allow for the redeployment of highly skilled professional Gardaí from administrative to front-line policing roles. As far as possible, Garda members should be assigned to posts requiring police powers or experience.

I am advised by the Garda authorities that as of 31 March 2023, the latest date for which figures are available, there were 3,130 Garda staff. This represents an increases of almost 56% since the end of December 2015 when there were 2,007 Garda staff.

I can also inform the Deputy that since 2015, civilianisation has freed almost 900 Garda members from back office duties nationwide to return to the front line policing for which they have been highly trained. This includes 144 in 2020, 98 in 2021 37.5 in 2022.