Dáil Éireann debate -
Tuesday, 17 Dec 2002

Vol. 559 No. 5

Written Answers. - PSNI Recruitment.

Jack Wall

Question:

55 Mr. Wall asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs if his attention has been drawn to concerns expressed by the chief constable of the PSNI, Hugh Orde, regarding what he described as a poor response from Roman Catholics to the recent recruitment drive; if, in view of the importance of a representative police force in Northern Ireland, he will urge all parties there to support the recruitment campaign; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [26524/02]

Minister for Foreign Affairs (Mr. Cowen)

In considering this issue, it is important to clearly distinguish between the campaigns to recruit, on the one hand, trainee police officers and, on the other hand, civilian support staff for the Police Service of Northern Ireland.

On 5 December, at a public meeting of the Policing Board, Chief Constable Hugh Orde referred to a process that took place some months ago to recruit civilian administrative assistants. This recruitment campaign attracted only 26 Catholics and 238 non-Catholic applicants. Officials of my Department subsequently raised our concerns about this matter with the British authorities. The response received indicated that the recruitment procedures in place at the time for the competitions in question were not sufficiently focused in their outreach. Efforts are being undertaken to address these problems in current and future competitions for police support staff.

In relation to the recruitment of police officers, the Patten Commission recognised that it would be necessary to alter the composition of the police service in order to radically improve its representativeness, a necessary prerequisite for acceptable, effective and community-based policing. It recommended, therefore, that new police recruits should be selected on a 50:50 basis from both communities, drawn from a pool of suitably qualified candidates, for a set period of time. This recommendation is currently being implemented, with recruitment of police trainees taking place at a target rate of 540 trainees per annum, which is in excess of that suggested in the Patten report.

There have been three competitions for new police trainees since the new arrangements were instituted in February 2001, all of which have been managed by an external recruitment consultant. In the first competition, 35.6% of applicants were drawn from the Catholic community, while 29% of the resulting merit pool of qualified candidates were Catholic. In the second competition, 38.7% of applicants and 25.9% of the merit pool of qualified candidates were Catholic. While figures for the third competition have not been finalised, figures available show that 35.2% of applicants and 26.2% of those passing the assessment tests are drawn from the Catholic community. There is currently no basis for the claim that Catholics have not been applying in sufficient numbers to become police officers in the PSNI to meet the 50:50 requirement.

When the Government endorsed the new policing arrangements back in August 2001, we said that the commitments then given by the British Government, in the context of the revised Patten implementation plan, could deliver the spirit and substance of the Patten report, and thereby the new beginning to policing promised in the Good Friday Agreement. A genuinely representative police service is at the heart of these new policing arrangements. The Government called then, and calls now, for support for the new police service from all communities in Northern Ireland.