asked the Minister for Justice when the 500 additional gardaí which it is proposed to recruit will be available for active Garda service.
8.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Garda Recruitment.
7.
asked the Minister for Justice the present strength of the Garda force; the steps being taken to increase it; and the extent to which and when the extra 500 Garda recruits recently announced will be utilised to to deal with the present serious position in Dublin.
9.
asked the Minister for Justice the reason for the delay in the recruitment of the 500 additional gardaí which the Government announced some months ago.
With the permission of the Ceann Comhairle, I propose to take Questions Nos. 7, 8 and 9 together.
The present authorised strength of the Garda force is 8,502 and the present actual strength is 8,475—the difference of 27 being due to retirements and other casual vacancies. The Government have decided to increase the strength of the force by 500 but recruitment of the extra members cannot take place until an entrance competition has been held. The necessary preliminary consultations in relation to the holding of the competition are nearing completion and I expect that details of the competition will be announced shortly.
No decision has been taken in regard to the allocation of the extra gardaí but it can be taken that a proportion of them will be allocated to Dublin.
Can the Minister say when the announcement was first made that the Government propose to take an extra 500 people into the Garda?
I have not got the date of the announcement. The most recent parliamentary question dealing with it was on 1st July.
Surely an announcement of such major importance to the nation is on the record arising of these three important questions?
I have no doubt that it is on the record, but it is not on the record I have here.
Does the Minister know?
I am not trying to conceal the information from the Deputy. It is on the record so there is no point in trying to conceal it.
What I am trying to establish——
Perhaps I could anticipate what the Deputy has in mind if he feels there has been a delay between the announcement and the recruiting. If that is what he feels, I share his anxiety about this because I have been urging that this recruitment should take place as quickly as possible. There was a very large number of applications and the terms of recruitment have to be settled to ensure that the method of recruitment is as fair as possible. The matter is complicated to some extent, by the question of what are to be the educational requirements for entry. In the past, leaving certificate holders were exempt from the preliminary examination. The question had to be decided whether such exemption was to be continued or not. I decided it is not to be continued and that all entrants will have to do an entrance examination. It will be for the Civil Service Commissioners to arrange for the holding of the competition.
Would the Minister not agree that, while we are now living in a supposed emergency situation, this might not be the time to change the terms for recruitment for admission as trainee garda? Would he further agree that he has had something in the region of 2,500 to 3,000 applications from young people who are unemployed throughout the country, the majority of whom are leaving certificate holders? They believed that the terms of recruitment to the Garda would be no different this time from last time. Surely the Minister and the Government are open to a grave charge of dragging their feet in not doing something about the recruitment of the extra 500 gardaí in the present situation.
It is important that the recruitment competition should be fair to those who have leaving certificates and those who have not. There are many excellent people who would be anxious to join the Garda and who, no doubt, would be acceptable, who do not have the leaving certificate. It would be unfair to prejudice them.
Arising out of examinations which have already been held, are there not a number of young men on the panel waiting to be called?
No. My information is that the last panel has now been exhausted.
No danger that the Minister for Finance might abolish the Garda?
No danger at all.
If I am right, this is the first time the Minister has indicated that the leaving certificate qualification is being discontinued. Is that right?
I should explain for the information of the House that, in the past, recruitment to the Garda was by way of entrance examination only. Some time ago, a number of competitions ago, it was decided in order to increase the numbers and to encourage more applicants that exemptions would be given from the preliminary examination to leaving certificate holders.
The position in regard to the pending competition is that there are very large numbers inquiring, many of whom have the leaving certificate but a substantial number of whom have not the leaving certificate. They would be entitled to assume that the conditions for this examination would more or less be the same as the last one and that those without leaving certificate would not find themselves excluded. I think it would be unfair to exclude them.
While I think everyone would accept what the Minister has outlined, would he not agree that he has enough qualified young men with the leaving certificate under the existing regulations to have recruited them months before this to meet the emergency that exists. He is now changing the rules midstream——
No, I am not changing the rules. The position is that the traditional method of recruitment was by way of entrance examination. A change in that was made some years ago to exempt the leaving certificate holders from the entrance examination. I want to restore the original situation for this forthcoming competition to make an entrance examination obligatory for all applicants.
If, as the Minister says, the terms of recruitment as they have been up to the present, that is, acceptance of the leaving certificate as a standard for entrance, are to be changed, what will the new standard be? Would the Minister agree that a change of such magnitude at this particular time will throw the recruitment of badly needed young gardaí back months? Are the Minister and the Government serious that they want 500 gardaí, and, if they do, can they pay for them?
The Deputy need have no worry about the Government's desire to recruit the 500 gardaí and about the ability to pay for them; the Deputy himself has said he would welcome extra taxation in the security area. I am anxious, as are the Garda authorities, to ensure that recruitment is as fair as possible and that the best possible applicants will come through the recruitment process. It is with those aims in mind that the competition is being devised, and slight changes have had to be made to go back to the original method of recruitment to ensure this. There is nothing more in it than that.
Could I again confirm the position the Minister has indicated, which is contrary to the information I have? I have made representation on behalf of young men with leaving certificate who are on the panel since 1975, and I have been told they will be considered when the new announcement is made.
The last panel was closed in early 1974, so that the people to whom the Deputy refers will be considered in the next recruitment.
They will be taken out of the 500?
Yes, they will be taking their chance of being recruited from the 500.
Have any gardaí been recruited in 1976?
Yes, gardaí have been recruited in 1976 coming off the last panel.
Which finished in 1974.
Question No. 10.