Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú)
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980. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality the amount spent by An Garda Síochána on consultancy services, in total, for each of the past ten years and on what the money was spent. [1061/25]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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I have requested the information sought by the Deputy from the Garda authorities. Regrettably, this was not available in time and I will write to the Deputy once the information is to hand.

Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú)
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981. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality how many Gardaí have been trained in response driving and pursuit driving for each of the past ten years and the percentage of Gardaí that are qualified to respond and pursuit drive currently. [1062/25]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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As the Deputy will be aware, in accordance with the Garda Síochána Act 2005 (as amended), it is the Garda Commissioner who is responsible for managing and controlling generally the administration and business of An Garda Síochána, including the training of its members. As Minister, I have no role in the matter.

I am informed by the Commissioner that there is a five-level suite of competency based driving (CBD) courses, with each level specifically catering for the required knowledge base, skill set and operational requirements of Garda members.

CBD Level 1 consists of a one-day assessment programme. Members who successfully complete CBD Level 1 will be deemed competent to carry out non-response driving functions and routine driving functions commensurate to the role.

CBD Level 2 is a two-week Competency Based Driving Course aimed at frontline Garda Drivers. This course contains Road Craft techniques and emergency response driving.

CBD Level 3 is an addition to the CBD2 course and is of three weeks in duration. This course has a requirement for a higher skillset of driving to facilitate the driving of higher powered vehicles. I am advised that Competency Based Driving Level 3 is the highest level of training given to operational members.

Following the publication of the An Garda Síochána Spontaneous Pursuit Policy in December 2024, a pursuit training course is now in development. Competency Based Driving Level 2 and the Competency Based Driving Level 3 courses include instructions on response driving.

The more specialised levels CBD4 and CBD5 are only delivered to members undergoing the selection process to become Garda Driving Instructors.

As you will appreciate, the allocations of training courses are on a divisional basis with Garda Members selected by local management.

I have been provided with the table below by the Garda Authorities which details the number of members who undertook CBD course at level 2 and 3 from 2014 to 2024. You may wish to note, further data is not released by An Garda Síochána for counts of fewer than 10 for data protection and security reasons.

*Denotes less than 10