Garda Strength.

Wednesday, 1 March 2006

Questions (186)

Richard Bruton

Question:

201 Mr. Bruton asked the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform the Garda strength at the end of 2005 in each of the 18 Garda districts within the Dublin metropolitan area. [8573/06]

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Written answers

Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform (Mr. McDowell)

I have been informed by the Garda authorities, who are responsible for the detailed allocation of resources, including personnel, that the personnel strength, all ranks, in each of the 18 Garda districts within the Dublin metropolitan area as at 31 December, 2005 was as set out in the table hereunder:

District	Strength
D.M.R. South Central
A	203
B	327
E	177
D.M.R. North Central
C	271
D	162
U	209
D.M.R. South
G	152
M	237
P	167
D.M.R. North
H	236
R	193
J	171
D.M.R. West
K	312
Q	181
L	186
D.M.R. East
F	197
N	182
W	179
TOTAL	3,742

The timescale for achieving the target strength of 14,000 members of the Garda Síochána, in line with the commitment in An Agreed Programme for Government, remains as when I announced the Government approval in October 2004 for my proposals to achieve this objective. The phased increase in the strength of the Garda Síochána to 14,000 will lead to a combined strength, of both attested gardaí and recruits in training, of 14,000 by the end of this year.

As part of the accelerated recruitment campaign to facilitate this process, 1,125 Garda recruits were inducted to the Garda College during 2005. The college will induct 1,100 recruits this year and a further 1,100 in 2007, by way of intakes to the college of approximately 275 recruits every quarter. This project is fully on target and will be achieved. In this regard, I am informed by the Garda authorities that the first incremental increase of newly attested gardaí due to the programme of accelerated recruitment into the Garda Síochána will take place on 16 March 2006.

The Garda Commissioner will now be drawing up plans on how best to distribute and manage these additional resources and, in this context, the needs of the Garda districts within the Dublin metropolitan area will be fully considered within the overall context of the needs of Garda divisions throughout the country.