Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 26 September 2024
51. Deputy Peadar Tóibín asked the Minister for Justice if her attention has been drawn to recruitment campaigns being run by other countries' police forces in Ireland; if her Department has undertaken any assessment of the impact these campaigns are having on recruitment to the Gardaí; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [37987/24]
View answerI would like to assure the Deputy that I am absolutely committed to providing An Garda Síochána with the resources necessary to make sure communities around Ireland are safe and feel safe.
While I am aware of efforts by foreign police services to recruit members of An Garda Síochána, I am advised that the number of Gardaí leaving to join a foreign police service is low. Furthermore, there have been a number of cases, where Gardaí who had previously resigned to join another police service, have been readmitted to An Garda Síochána.
More generally, in 2024, I have provided a budget allocation of over €2.35 billion to An Garda Síochána. This is a 25% increase since 2020 and will allow for the sustained recruitment of new Garda recruits through to next year.
I have taken a number of actions to support increased recruitment. We have increased the age of entry from 35 to 50, extended the retirement age to 62 and most recently increased the training allowance to €354. This represents an increase of over 92% in the last 12 months. The Government is determined that An Garda Síochána grows to 15,000 members and beyond.
The response to this year’s Garda recruitment campaign in January and February was very strong. I am advised by the Garda authorities that 6,381 people applied for the 2024 Garda Trainee Competition. The Commissioner has also recently committed to running recruitment campaigns annually.
I will continue to engage with the Garda Commissioner to determine additional measures that can be taken in order to reach the Government’s target of 15,000 Gardaí and beyond.
An Garda Síochána continue to work on the mitigation of various resourcing challenges and the Deputy may already be aware that I have established a Garda Recruitment Training Capacity Group.
