An Garda Síochána

Tuesday, 15 October 2024

Questions (452)

Richard Bruton

Question:

452. Deputy Richard Bruton asked the Minister for Justice the number of gardaí recruited in the Mayo district in each of the years 2020 to 2023 and to date in 2024. [41357/24]

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Written answers

As the Deputy will be aware, a further record-breaking increase in funding for An Garda Síochána was allocated in Budget 2025. The allocation for An Garda Síochána now stands at €2.48 billion, and has increased by 27% since 2020. This funding will support the recruitment of new Garda members, Garda staff and Garda Reserves, and reflects the Government’s commitment to supporting all parts of the organisation.

The Government are taking a number of steps to accelerate recruitment into An Garda Síochána, including almost doubling the Garda training allowance, increasing the age of entry from 35 to 50, increasing the mandatory retirement age from 60 to 62, and launching a new Garda Reserve Competition.

There are currently over 14,000 Garda members across the country compared to 12,816 in 2015.

As you will be aware, the Garda Commissioner is responsible for the management and administration of Garda business under Section 26 of the Garda Síochána Act 2005 (as amended), including the recruitment and training of Garda members and staff.

A Garda recruitment competition was launched on 15 January 2024 and closed for applications on 8 February. The response to this year’s Garda recruitment campaign was very strong. I am advised by the Garda authorities that 6,381 people applied.

Since the reopening of the Garda college in September 2014 a total of 4,824 Garda members have attested of which 35 Probationer Gardaí were assigned to Mayo.

The table below, which was provided to me by the Garda authorities, sets out the number of probationer Garda allocated to Mayo in each of the years 2020 up to 2023 and in 2024, up to the 20 September, the date of the latest attestation.

MAYO	2020	2021	2022	2023	2024	Total
	10	5	1	1	0	17

Please be advised that these figures are operational and may be subject to change.

At the end of June 2024, the latest date for which figures are available, there were 581 Garda members assigned to the Mayo/Roscommon/Longford Division. These Garda members are supported by 102 Garda staff.

Also, in the interest of transparency, information in relation to the allocation of Probationer Gardaí by Division and Station is publicly available and can be found at the following link: