Maeve O'Connell (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael)
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437. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality to report on the work of his Department in reaching targets for Garda recruitment. [31744/25]

Maeve O'Connell (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael)
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438. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality to report on the work of his Department in increasing the number of Garda reserves. [31745/25]

Jim O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay South, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 437 and 438 together.

My first priority as Minister for Justice is to get more Gardaí on our streets through increased recruitment.

The overall Garda workforce, which includes Gardaí, civilian staff and Reserves currently stands at over 18,000.

Significant changes have been made in recent years to boost recruitment and retention in An Garda Síochána, including increasing the Garda trainee allowance to €354 per week; the age of entry has increased from 35 to 50; and the mandatory retirement age has been raised to 62.

Additionally, last year new regulations were brought forward by Government with respect to the recruitment, training and deployment of the Reserve. To help support the work of Reserves, the maximum stipend a Reserve member receives for voluntary service in a given year has been increased from €1,000 to €3,000.

We can see clearly that there is strong interest in a career in An Garda Síochána. In February the latest recruitment competition took place. It attracted just over 6,700 applicants, This builds on the 5,000 applications which were received in 2023 and the almost 6,400 last year. I would like to commend publicjobs and An Garda Síochána for the innovative and creative recruitment campaign they ran which has resulted in such strong interest.

So far this year more than 370 trainee Gardaí have entered Templemore. Two of a total of four intakes have already commenced training, including 170 trainees entering Templemore College this week. I am committed to working with the Garda Commissioner to explore ways of increasing the number of trainees who enter Templemore in the remaining two intakes scheduled for this year and beyond.

A competition to recruit Garda Reserves was run in 2024, the first in many years. Garda Reserves play a vital role in their communities, and the revised regulations brought forward will allow them to contribute even more effectively.

The Garda Reserve competition received over 1,800 applications. 20 successful candidates, the first cohort, entered Templemore in recent weeks and are expected to attest in Q4 of this year. They will be followed by further intakes in 2025 and throughout 2026.

The Programme for Government commits to examining a range of further measures to enable An Garda Síochána recruit 5,000 members across the next five years, and I have already had initial conversations with the Commissioner about how that might be achieved.

Furthermore, a target has been set to have 2,000 Reserves by 2026. The Government is committed to supporting the Garda Commissioner to achieve this goal, as well as to ensure new intakes annually.

A Recruitment and Training Capacity Group has been established, chaired by my Department, to support the achievement of increased recruitment and ensure that these recruitment campaigns are impactful. They are working to progress short, medium and long term initiatives to ensure a consistent and efficient recruitment pipeline for Garda Trainees. The Group will keep me informed on actions being taken to maximise future intakes and to ensure recruitment can be as effective as possible. The Group will also provide a final report to me by the summer which I expect will include further measures to support recruitment and retention.