Only 50 more frontline gardaí this year despite recruitment campaigns

It marks a reduction on the previous month and continues the up-and-down trend throughout this year, with numbers struggling to push past the 14,000 mark.

The latest figures, contained in the Garda Commissioner’s November report to the Policing Authority, compares to a garda strength of 13,940 in October 2023. This included 11,127 rank and file gardaí, which means there are only 51 more frontline members in the organisation since this time last year.

Promises to increase the number of gardaí formed a significant part of most political parties’ manifestos in relation to crime and policing.

Fine Gael said they would fund the recruitment of 6,000 gardaí over five years, while Fianna Fáil promised to recruit 5,000 gardaí over the five years.

Sinn Féin pledged something similar — to recruit between 900 and 1,000 initially, increasing that to 1,500, bringing numbers to 16,000 over the five years.

Labour also plan to reach 16,000 by 2029, with the Green Party looking to get to 15,500.

Social Democrats were the most ambitious, setting a target of 18,000 as per a recommendation from Garda Commissioner Drew Harris.

Many of the parties have promised opening a second training facility, in addition to the Garda College in Templemore, and/or using regional third-level education institutes for academic parts of the garda course.

Last month, Justice Minister Helen McEntee told the Dáil that just 470 students had been recruited into Templemore so far this year, with another intake due this month. This compares to the government target of 800-1,000 this year, similar to its targets in previous years.

Ms McEntee said a total of 1,517 gardaí have been recruited into the organisation in the last four years, but that 1,202 have retired.

She provided the following figures:

• 275 recruits and 250 retirements in 2020;
• 380 recruits and 293 retirements in 2021;
• 116 recruits and 340 retirements in 2022;
• 746 recruits and 319 retirements in 2023.

Covid restrictions are estimated to have prevented over 1,000 student gardaí joining the force.

Ms McEntee said the government had taken measures to boost recruitment, including increasing the maximum age of entry from 35 to 50 and, most recently, increasing the training allowance to €354, almost doubling it in the last year.

A number of the parties have talked about increasing this amount further, if in the next government.

Ms McEntee said that, in addition, the government had increased the retirement age from 60 to 62.

She said she had set up a garda recruitment training capacity group to consider further measures to assist in reaching the government target of 15,000 sworn members. Ms McEntee said a garda recruitment campaign was launched in January and 6,381 people had applied to join.

The November monthly report shows that 214 gardaí have retired by the end of October and that 122 have resigned.

The resignation figure compares to 171 for the whole of 2023 and 110 for 2022.

Other statistics show that 88 applications have been received to extend their service, 51 of which have been approved, with one application pending. The other 23 applications were no longer required after the retirement age was extended from 60 to 62 in September.