Verona Murphy
Ceist:491. Deputy Verona Murphy asked the Minister for Justice her views on what constitutes an adequate number of Gardaí nationwide; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [36321/24]
Amharc ar fhreagraWednesday, 18 September 2024
Ceisteanna (491)
Freagraí scríofa
As the Deputy will be aware, under section 26 of the Garda Síochána Act 2005 (as amended), the Garda Commissioner is responsible for the management and administration of Garda business, which includes all internal HR matters. The determination of adequate levels of Garda members in any area is a matter for the Commissioner. As Minister, I have no role in these independent functions.
I can assure the Deputy that I am committed to building stronger, safer communities – and strengthening An Garda Síochána is at the core of that. The Government is determined that An Garda Síochána grows to 15,000 members and beyond. We are also committed to increasing the number of Garda staff to 4,000 and the Garda Reserve to 1,000 by the end of 2026 and to 2,000 thereafter. I have provided record levels of funding to the Garda Vote, including over €2.35 billion under Budget 2024 which is an increase of over 25% since 2020. This funding is supporting ongoing recruitment of Garda members and staff.
The most recent Garda recruitment campaign, which ran in January and February this year, received a very strong response with over 6,300 people applying to become a Garda. This is a significant increase on the 5,000 people who applied last year. It is good to see that so many people want to join An Garda Síochána with a strong response from people aged between 35 and 50. Well over a third of the applications were in that age group.
To assist with recruitment, I have taken a number of actions with colleagues in Government over the past number of months including:
• Increased the training allowance for Garda recruits to €354. This represents an increase of over 92% in the last 12 months;
• Increased the age of entry from 35 to 50;
• Increased the mandatory retirement age to 62.
An Garda Síochána continues to work on the mitigation of various resourcing challenges and I have established a Garda Recruitment Training Capacity Group to consider further measures to assist in reaching our current target of 15,000 sworn members.