Willie O'Dea
Ceist:22. Deputy Willie O'Dea asked the Minister for Justice the number of gardaí that have been recruited to date in 2022. [60500/22]
Amharc ar fhreagraTuesday, 6 December 2022
Ceisteanna (22)
Freagraí scríofa
The unprecedented €2.14 billion allocated to An Garda Síochána under Budget 2023 demonstrates the Government’s commitment to ensuring that Gardaí have the resources necessary to carry out their vital service. This level of funding will provide a steady pipeline of new Gardaí in the coming year.
While Garda numbers have continued to grow over recent years, this growth has stalled in 2022 following the prolonged closure of the Garda College for much of 2020 and 2021 as a result of COVID-19.
I was therefore delighted to note the very strong interest in the recent Garda recruitment campaign, with over 11,000 people applying to become a member. This recruitment process is continuing to identify candidates to enter the Garda College over the coming period.
The first successful candidates from this campaign entered the Garda College on 28 November 2022, with further larger intakes scheduled at around 11-week intervals over the course of next year, beginning in Q1 2022.
I am advised by the Garda authorities that 92 recruits entered Templemore last week. The number of attestations this year so far is 369 (145 in Jan, 70 in March, 101 in May and 53 in July) – meaning nearly 500 will have completed or begun their training in 2022
I am also advised 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.
In this regard, I am informed by the Garda authorities that since the reopening of the Garda College in September 2014 a total of 4,500 Probationer Gardaí have attested, which includes the 369 probationer Gardaí that have attested this year, having commenced their training in previous years but not having completed Phase 1, in the main due to the Covid-19 impact on the Garda college.