As the Deputy will be appreciate, it is the Garda Commissioner who has responsibility to carry on and manage and control generally the administration and business of An Garda Síochána, including by arranging for the recruitment, training and appointment of its members and civilian staff.
The Deputy will be aware that the Government's vision is for a Garda workforce of 21,000 personnel by 2021 to include 15,000 Garda members, 2,000 Garda Reserve members and 4,000 civilians. The projected 4,000 civilians represents a medium-term target of 20% of the Garda full-time workforce comprised of civilians. This target will be achieved through a twin-track approach of firstly, a “civilian by default” policy in relation to the filling of all new posts other than operational policing posts and for non-operational policing posts that become vacant and, secondly, the redeployment of Gardaí to policing roles where their skills can be used to best effect, with the backfilling of these roles by suitably qualified civilians, where necessary.
Progress is being made in relation to civilianisation. Since the beginning of 2017 approximately 330 new civilian posts have been sanctioned by the Policing Authority with the consent of my Department and the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform. The bulk of these were to address critical skills gaps and capacity issues with a proportion sanctioned to make a start on the redeployment of Gardaí to policing duties.
I am informed by the Garda Commissioner that as of 3 December, approximately 365 civilians have been recruited to An Garda Síochána in 2018. Some of these civilian staff were recruited to backfill existing vacancies, some were to facilitate the redeployment of Gardaí to frontline duties and others were to fill newly created civilian posts to fill skills gaps across the organisation.
Work is also continuing on an overall redeployment plan and I am informed by Garda management that as of 3 December, almost 200 Gardaí have been reassigned to operational duties and it is expected that the target for 2018 of 250 redeployments will be achieved by year end. That is an additional 250 Gardaí on the front-line in 2018 over and above those being recruited under the Government's accelerated recruitment programme. Now that redeployments are happening, I expect that the momentum will increase and that 2019 will see greater numbers of sworn members moving from administrative work to the front-line.
This is very much in line with the Report of the Commission for the Future of Policing in Ireland which recommends the return of Gardaí to the front line to deliver visible policing. Later this month, I will bring my substantive response to the Report and a High Level Implementation Plan to Government, for approval. The twin issues of redeployment and civilianisation will be prioritised in the High Level Implementation Plan.
The Third Interim Report of the Disclosures Tribunal suggested a series of obligations as the duty of police personnel. Among these is an obligation on Gardaí to be visible within the communities they serve. I am confident that the continuing increase in Garda numbers towards 15,000, the planned increases in the Garda Reserve and the redeployment of Gardaí to the front-line, will together result in increased Garda visibility in our communities.
