2026-03-19

1. Deputy Matt Carthy asked the Minister for Justice, Home Affairs and Migration the number of gardaí who attested in 2025; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [20732/26]

For all the rhetoric, there has actually been very little progress made in tackling the Garda recruitment and retention crisis. There continues to be a severe over-dependence on overtime for routine Garda work. Considering the significant challenges gardaí will face this year, will the Minister inform the House of precisely how many gardaí attested in 2025?

The number of people we have in An Garda Síochána is extremely important from the point of view of enforcing the law. It is probably the most important part of the functions carried out by us, as Ministers, to ensure that the law we make in this House is enforced. At present, there is a workforce of approximately 18,000 in An Garda Síochána. This includes 14,397 attested members, 3,527 Garda staff and 308 Garda reserves. Last year, 619 gardaí attested from the Garda College, which, I am pleased to say, was the highest number in seven years. If the Deputy wants to look at this from the point of view of the year of the date of appointment of the Government in January 2025, he will note as well that there was an extra attestation in February of this year, which brought the number who attested up to 786. Recruitment is going in the right direction. The Deputy used the phrase "recruitment and retention crisis". There is no such crisis. In fact, even the representative associations do not now refer to a crisis. Resignations from An Garda Síochána are really low. Last year, 141 members of the force resigned. That is less than 1%. This is remarkably small when compared with nearby jurisdictions. I know recruitment is going in the right direction because in December, we took in 223 new recruits into Templemore. This is the highest it has been in years. If I can get up to 225 or 250 on each intake, we will get to where we want to be.

The Minister stated he wants to reach 5,000 attestations over the lifetime of the Government. It does not take much deduction to realise that 619 gardaí attesting in the calendar year of 2025 remains way below what is needed in order meet that goal. That number will come as a surprise to many people, especially when they have heard so much about the fact that over 11,000 people applied to join An Garda last year. That points to a crisis. It certainly points to a failure. Despite the welcome increase in the intakes into Templemore, there has to be a recognition the numbers are still nowhere near where they need to be. What is the Government going to do about this? What additional measures are going to be put in place? We have outlined proposals to increase both the training allowance and the number of training places and to encourage gardaí who have left the force to rejoin it. Has the Minister done any of those things?

We can agree on one thing, namely that it is heading in the right direction. It is certainly improving. The fact that we have seen the highest number of gardaí attesting in seven years is a very positive story from the point of view of the Irish public. The Deputy is correct in stating that we ran two recruitment campaigns, in which there was huge interest, last year. We got 11,000 people expressing an interest in applying to join. We are processing those applications much faster. The fact that we got 223 new recruits into Templemore in December is a really positive story. If we can consistently get numbers like that, we will see attestations coming up to the figure of 1,000 and to more than that in the future. The reason we want to do this, as the Deputy will be aware, is because people want to see more gardaí on the streets. On a visit to Cork last week, I heard a very positive account of extra Garda visibility. The same applies in Limerick, as the Minister of State, Deputy Collins, will attest to. A huge amount of work is being done to get the numbers up. That work will continue.

Of course we want to see more gardaí across all the regions, but we also need to address the failure in terms of numbers. In that context, I am sure the Minister will accept that there is far to much reliance on overtime for routine police work. We have far too few community and roads policing gardaí. We are in what is probably an unprecedented year, with the EU Presidency and the upcoming Ireland-Israel UEFA Nations League game, which, unfortunately, is still going ahead. We still have the potential of a visit by Donald Trump in September. The Minister mentioned the representative organisations. My understanding is that the Garda Representative Association, GRA, has threatened to refuse voluntary overtime as part of its dispute. An Garda Síochána has classified more than 40 events that will need to be the subject of major security operations during the Presidency . If we are going to rely on overtime for those, it will invariably mean that there will not be enough Garda visibility in areas outside of Dublin. What assurance will the Minister provide to communities that these additional responsibilities for gardaí will not leave their areas under-policed when the events to which I refer are taking place?

Overtime is always an integral part of the service provided by An Garda Síochána. Every year, there are major events that have to be policed. I have spoken extensively to the Commissioner about the commitments arising from the EU Presidency and the Ireland-Israel soccer match. Whatever happens, the Commissioner has informed me that there will be resources available to police these events. We want to get as many people as we can into An Garda Síochána. A number of significant changes made in recent times have had a really positive impact. I refer, in particular, to changing the recruitment cut-off age from 35 years to 50. We are now seeing people who are in their 40s and in sedentary careers wanting the excitement of a career in An Garda Síochána. These individuals are joining the force. Also, increasing the mandatory retirement age to 62 has had a very positive impact. I have a very good relationship with all of the associations. They are very co-operative. Like me and, I presume, the Deputy, they want to see what is best for An Garda Síochána and the Irish public.