I propose to take Questions Nos. 153, 154, 164 and 166 together.
The Deputies will be aware that the Public Appointments Service are managing this recruitment process for the Garda Commissioner and as such I have no direct involvement in the matter. I have however been informed that the first stages of the recruitment competition have now been completed. Candidates who have qualified through these have been placed in order of merit into three bands.
Those in Band one will be the first to be called to the next stages of the competition, which will also be run by PAS, and if ultimately successful will be placed on a panel for entry into training in the Garda College. A candidate who fails any stage of the process will be eliminated from the competition and will not be allowed re-enter this competition. Once all those on Band one have been tested, those on Band two and then Band three will be called to the second and subsequent stages and again, if ultimately successful, will also be placed on the panel.
The number progressing through any stages of the recruitment process is dependent on the success rate of the candidates in question and it is therefore not possible at this stage to know how many candidates from any Band will go forward to the interview stage.
I have made it clear on a number of occasions that it is my wish that Garda strength should remain at 13,000 and the number to be recruited will take that into account along with the rate of departures from the force in the coming years.