Vol. 496 No. 6
372 Mr. McGrath asked the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform when he will have a competition process in place for recruitment to the Garda Síochána; and the numbers he will recruit over the next three years. [23401/98]
The programme for Government includes a commitment to increase the strength of the force to 12,000 and I propose to achieve this by the year 2002. In January of this year I initiated a programme of accelerated recruitment to meet this target and this programme is now well under way. The 550 students recruited to the Garda College in 1998 were candidates in the 1997 recruitment competition and the strength of the force now exceeds 11,100.
I intend to press ahead with the programme next year and the Government recently approved my proposals for a new Garda recruitment competition and the recruitment of a further 550 trainees in 1999.
It is envisaged that the Civil Service Commission will conduct the first phase, i.e. written tests, of the 1999 Garda recruitment competition in late February/early March.
Garda strength and wastage levels are monitored on an ongoing basis and I will bring my proposals regarding the number of trainees to be recruited in 2000 and 2001 to Government in due course.
