Austin Deasy
Question:65 Mr. Deasy asked the Minister for Justice if he will outline the number of Garda Síochána, including bangardaí, being recruited and the time span involved in the recruitment drive.
Written Answers. - Garda Recruitment.
Michael Bell
Question:164 Mr. Bell asked the Minister for Justice the plans he has for further recruitment of the Garda Síochána; and when recruitment and training will commence.
I propose to take Questions Nos. 65 and 164 together.
A recruitment campaign to bring 1,000 new members into the force has just commenced and will be carried out over the next three years.
This competition which is being run by the Civil Service Commission is open to both men and women and their is no restriction on the number of either sex recruited within the 1,000 figure. Successful candidates, whether male or female, will be placed on the same list and called in order of merit.
The selection process for this competition is as follows. All candidates who met the educational qualifications were invited to sit a written intelligence test during September. The written papers are now being corrected and interviewing of successful candidates will commence in December. The first group of candidates selected through this process will commence training in Templemore in April next. The training programme will last for 62 weeks in the case of each group of candidates.