Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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41. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality the number of gardaí assigned to Gaeltacht regions; the number assigned to each station; the number who are fluent in Irish; the same number with respect to each, in each year since 2009; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [25301/23]

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 the allocation of personnel among the various Garda Divisions. As Minister, I have no role in such matters.

I am, however, assured that the distribution of resources is kept under continual review in the context of crime trends and policing priorities while also being cognisant of statutory commitments to Gaeilge and those commitments to Garda members who have joined the organisation through the Irish stream.

I can assure the Deputy that An Garda Síochána remains committed to the Irish language. A new Irish Language Strategy was published in March 2022. The Strategy aims to strengthen Irish language services within An Garda Síochána and ensure compliance with statutory language obligations. It includes a long-term goal of ensuring all Gaeltacht Garda stations are fully bilingual.

As outlined in the new Irish Language Strategy, An Garda Síochána will achieve its objectives through recruitment, Irish language development and awareness, and promotion and engagement.

Studies in the Irish language will remain part of the Policing BA delivered to all trainee Gardaí in the Garda College, Templemore.

An Garda Síochána issued a Directive in 2018 to ensure that only members with the appropriate Irish language skills would transfer to Gaeltacht stations, with a view to increasing the number of bilingual personnel in these stations.

The Garda authorities are also committed to ensuring that a policing service is provided through the Irish language medium in Gaeltacht stations and in Divisions with a Gaeltacht station as far as is possible in the overall context of providing a safe and effective policing service nationwide. In recent years, An Garda Síochána has brought in important measures to comply with their language obligations, including:

• The introduction of an Irish Language Stream in the recruitment process, whereby 10% of spaces in each competition are reserved for fluent Irish speakers.
• The introduction of an allocations process for Gaeltacht stations, which included a revised system of assessment, as recommended by An Coimisinéir Teanga, and also an Irish Language Proficiency Panel which includes Irish-speaking members who wish to serve in Gaeltacht areas.
• Providing opportunities for all personnel to improve their proficiency in the language.
• The introduction of an Irish language interpretation service that is available to all personnel and allows for the facilitation of services through Irish if personnel with Irish are unavailable to assist.

Each year the recruitment campaign has been advertised across all Irish language media and the national and local outreach activities undertaken by An Garda Síochána have included engagement with Gaeltacht communities and interest groups in relation the Irish Stream.

I am informed by the Garda authorities that 1,532 Garda members have declared competency in Irish with 113 declaring as native Irish speakers.

The Deputy will be interested to know the 2022 and 2023 Garda Trainee Recruitment competitions included an Irish Stream. To date, 24 candidates from the 2022 competition Irish stream have been successful at interview stage.

The attached table, provided to me by the Garda authorities, shows the personnel strength of Gaeltacht Garda stations as at 30/04/2023 and the number of members who declare competency in Irish or as native Irish speakers assigned to these stations. I hope the Deputy will appreciate that historical figures are not readily available, and would require an inordinate expenditure of Garda time and resources.