Richard O'Donoghue
Question:226. Deputy Richard O'Donoghue asked the Minister for Justice the number of new gardaí recruited in each of the years 2020 and 2021 and from January to August 2022, in tabular form. [47739/22]
View answerThursday, 29 September 2022
Questions (226)
Written answers
The Budget allocation for 2023, announced earlier this week, increases funding to An Garda Síochána by over €78 million, bringing the total allocation for next year to €2.14 billion. This unprecedented amount will fund the recruitment of up to 1,000 new Garda recruits as well as over 400 Garda staff.
I am informed by the Garda authorities that at the end of August this year, there are 14,283 Garda members, supported by over 3,117(WTE) Garda staff. This represents an increase of almost 12% since 2015 when there were 12,816 Garda members throughout the country.
The recruitment campaign for An Garda Síochána in 2022 saw more than 11,000 people apply to join the service – and we will open another campaign next year to help us guarantee that there are 200 new recruits entering Templemore every three months over the coming years.
This will provide a clear pipeline of recruits.
Garda management have indicated that tranches of 200 trainees will enter the college in February, May, July, October and December – 1,000 recruits into the college next year.
It should be noted that while Garda Members numbers have continued to grow over recent years, this growth has understandably been impacted by Covid-19 restrictions in the Garda College for much of 2020 and 2021, in common with other organisations.
The table below, provided to me by the Garda authorities, outlines the number of new Gardaí recruited in 2020, 2021 and up to 31 August 2022.
|
2020 |
255 |
|
2021 |
385 |
|
2022 to 31 August |
24 |
The following revised reply was received on 5 January 2023.
The Budget allocation for 2023, announced earlier this week, increases funding to An Garda Síochána by over €78 million, bringing the total allocation for next year to €2.14 billion. This unprecedented amount will fund the recruitment of up to 1,000 new Garda recruits as well as over 400 Garda staff.
I am informed by the Garda authorities that at the end of August this year, there are 14,283 Garda members, supported by over 3,117(WTE) Garda staff. This represents an increase of almost 12% since 2015 when there were 12,816 Garda members throughout the country.
The recruitment campaign for An Garda Síochána in 2022 saw more than 11,000 people apply to join the service – and we will open another campaign next year to help us guarantee that there are 200 new recruits entering Templemore every three months over the coming years.
This will provide a clear pipeline of recruits.
Garda management have indicated that tranches of 200 trainees will enter the college in February, May, July, October and December – 1,000 recruits into the college next year.
It should be noted that while Garda Members numbers have continued to grow over recent years, this growth has understandably been impacted by Covid-19 restrictions in the Garda College for much of 2020 and 2021, in common with other organisations.
The table below, provided to me by the Garda authorities, outlines the number of new Gardaí recruited in 2020, 2021 and up to 31 August 2022.
|
Year |
*Number of new Gardaí recruited |
|
2020 |
275 |
|
2021 |
385 |
|
2022 to 31 August |
24 |
* The above figures refer to the number of Garda Trainees who start in the Garda College. There after the recruit must undertake Phase 1 successfully before they are attested.
I am informed by the Garda authorities that Phase 1 takes around 6 months to complete.
I am also informed that due to the gap from recruitment to attestation, it is often the case that a person would be recruited in one year and attest the following year.