Pa Daly (Kerry, Sinn Fein)
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22. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality the actions he is taking to tackle Garda recruitment and retention, including Garda numbers; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [53688/25]

Jim O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay South, Fianna Fail)
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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.

At the end of August, the total Garda personnel strength stood at over 18,000, which included 14,369 Garda Members, 3,494 Garda Staff, and 296 Reserves.

I will continue to support An Garda Síochána to increase this number further so that we can see more Gardaí assigned all across the country.

Significant measures have been made to boost recruitment and retention including by increasing the Garda trainee allowance to €354 per week; increasing the age of entry from 35 to 50; and raising the mandatory retirement age to 62.

The Garda recruitment campaign in February attracted over 6,700 applications and a second competition for this year is currently underway and closes today (9 October).

149 probationer Gardaí attested in March, 120 attested in June, and 154 attested in August, giving a total of 423 so far this year, with one further attestation scheduled for November. At the same time, intakes of 201, 170 and 200 in March, June and August respectively, illustrate that the pace of recruitment is accelerating.

The Recruitment and Training Capacity Group was established to support the achievement of increased recruitment. The Group has kept me informed on actions being taken to maximise future intakes and to ensure that recruitment processes can be as effective as possible. This group’s final report was published last week and is available on my Department’s website.

On the issue of retention, by any objective standard, the proportion of Garda resignations remains very low with the resignation rate currently between 1 and 2%. I understand this turnover is far below the level experienced by UK police services (approximately 10%) and across the rest of the public sector in Ireland or in the private sector (between 10% and 20%). In addition, police services in the US, New Zealand, and Canada have all reported a significant increase in resignations in excess of the Garda resignation rate, especially in the last few years post-Covid.