Joe Cooney (Clare, Fine Gael)
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150. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality the number of members of An Garda Síochána who have been redeployed or retired from the Clare-Tipperary Garda division during 2023 and 2024 with a breakdown for counties Clare and Tipperary; and the number of members of An Garda Síochána that have been assigned to the Clare-Tipperary Garda Division for duty during the same periods with a breakdown for counties Clare and Tipperary, in tabular form. [6536/25]

Jim O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay South, Fianna Fail)
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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 distribution of Garda members between the different Garda units and Divisions. As Minister, I have no role in such matters.

The Government is committed to ensuring that An Garda Síochána has the resources it needs to fight crime and a strengthened, well-resourced Garda organisation is central to this policy. Unprecedented funding of over €2.48 billion was secured for this year, a 27% increase since 2020 which is supporting the continued recruitment of Garda members and staff.

In the interest of transparency, information in relation to the allocation of Garda Members by Division, District, and Station is publicly available and can be found at the following link. I can also advise the Deputy that I have received the most recent figures for October from An Garda Síochána which have been published on the website.

www.gov.ie/en/publication/bd777-an-garda-siochana-your-police-service-some-facts-and-figures/.

Garda management has been unable to provide me with specific data regarding retirements and resignations in Clare / Tipperary in this timeframe. Retirement and resignation figures at a national level are provided in the below table.

For the Deputy’s information, detailed statistics relating to retirements are publicly available and can be found in the Garda Commissioner reports to the Policing Authority on the Garda website at the following link: www.garda.ie/en/about-us/publications/general-reports/commissioner-s-monthly-reports-to-policing-authority/

Regarding the assignment of Probationer Gardaí to Clare/Tipperary, I can confirm that a total of 12 Probationer Gardai were assigned to stations in Tipperary across 2023 and 2024, and two were assigned to stations in Clare.

Regarding transfers, An Garda Síochána does not maintain historical records of transfers approved, and as such is not in a position to provide the information requested.

Holly Cairns (Cork South-West, Social Democrats)
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151. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality if he will detail all awards for the payment of money to the Criminal Assets Bureau (CAB); and the eventual amount recovered by the CAB in relation to each award in the past ten years, in tabular form. [6572/25]

Jim O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay South, Fianna Fail)
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The Criminal Assets Bureau is a multi-agency statutory body established in 1996. The Bureau’s remit is to target a person's assets, wherever situated, which derive, or are suspected to derive, directly or indirectly, from criminal conduct. Since its inception nearly 30 years ago, the Bureau has been at the forefront of fighting organised crime in this jurisdiction and disrupting the activities of criminal gangs by depriving them of ill-gotten assets.

The new Programme for Government contains a commitment to expand the powers of the Criminal Assets Bureau as eradicating organised crime is central to building safer, stronger communities. I am absolutely committed to that goal, and supporting the Bureau is an important element of this.

I understand that the Bureau does not hold statistics in the precise manner sought by the Deputy. However, all of the statistics for the Bureau’s outputs, including all returns to the Exchequer, are detailed in its annual reports 2010-2023 which are available at www.cab.ie/annual-reports/.

Sorca Clarke (Longford-Westmeath, Sinn Fein)
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152. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality the number of bench warrants outstanding, per Garda region, per county, as of 14 February 2025, in tabular form. [6574/25]

Jim O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay South, Fianna Fail)
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The Garda Commissioner is, by law, responsible for the management and administration of Garda business, including the allocation of Garda resources in respect of identified operational demands. As Minister, I have no direct role in these matters.

The Deputy will appreciate that the execution of warrants, including bench warrants, can be impeded by persons actively seeking to evade detection and where limited identification information might be available to support enforcement. The data also reflects an accumulation of old bench warrants and therefore may not be a reliable indicator of the number of 'live' warrants which are actually enforceable.

I am assured that An Garda Síochána execute warrants as expeditiously as possible, giving priority to the execution of warrants relating to serious crimes.

The table below, provided to me by the Garda authorities, shows the number of bench warrants that were outstanding by region and division on 11 February 2024.

Figures were collated based on PULSE data as of 11 February, 2025. Please note that these figures are operational and may be liable to change.

Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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153. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality the percentage of the current membership of An Garda Síochána who will be eligible to retire by 2030; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [6637/25]

Jim O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay South, Fianna Fail)
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The new Programme for Government sets out a number of commitments to ensure that An Garda Síochána has the resources it needs to fight crime; increasing the number of Gardaí to ensure high visibility policing is central to this.

There is a record Garda budget allocation this year of over €2.48 billion, a 27% increase since 2020 which is supporting the continued recruitment of Garda members and staff.

It is the case that once a Garda has completed 30 years service they may opt to retire on full pension at age 50 if they joined before 1 April 2004 or 55 years of age if they joined on or after that date.

It is however the practice for some Gardaí to work well beyond the point at which they become eligible for retirement and, for some Gardaí, even beyond the age of mandatory retirement. My Department processed 45 applications for such extensions in 2024.

In total 100 Gardaí were granted extensions in the last two years which illustrates the willingness of some Gardaí to remain serving beyond the age of 60, as well as the ability to accommodate these requests, even before the recent statutory increase to 62 years which took effect in September 2024.

While is estimated that a cumulative figure of some 1,640 Gardaí will become eligible for early retirement between 2025 and 2030, which would represent 11.6% of those current serving, it should be noted that it is extremely unlikely that all these Gardaí would option to retire early by 2030 as this figure represents those who are eligible for early retirement rather than those who have reached the age of mandatory retirement.

As well as retaining experienced Gardaí, enhancing recruitment is a top priority for me and I have welcomed the 2025 Garda Trainee Recruitment campaign which opened on 6 February and will close at 3pm next Thursday, 27 February.

In addition, a Recruitment and Training Capacity Group has been established, chaired by a Deputy Secretary General in my Department, to support the achievement of increased recruitment. The Group will keep me informed on actions being taken to maximise future intakes and to ensure recruitment can be as effective as possible and is due to provide a final report to me by the summer which I expect will include further measures to support recruitment and retention.