Minister’s Reference: DJE-MO-03710-2023
12/05/2023
Dear Mr. Croft,
Thank you for your recent correspondence to the Minister for Justice, Mr Simon Harris TD. I am responding on behalf of the Minister.
I have noted the contents of your correspondence and the concerns that you have raised. I hope you will appreciate, the Garda Commissioner is responsible for the management and administration of An Garda Síochána, including responsibility for the recruitment, training and deployment of Garda members.
The Government is committed to building stronger, safer communities and a strengthened, well-resourced Garda Síochána is central to this policy. Since 2015, the Government has increased the budget of An Garda Síochána by approximately €672m, or 46%. This has allowed for sustained and ongoing recruitment.
The Minister is assured that the Commissioner keeps the allocation of these resources under continued review, in line with crime and population trends, to ensure their optimum use. As of the end of April 2023, the latest date for which figures are available, there were 13,995 Garda members. This represents an increase of almost 10% since end December 2015 when there were 12,816 Garda members throughout the country.
As at the end of March 2023 there were 3,130 Garda staff whose presence increases the availability of Gardaí to concentrate on frontline policing duties In addition, since 2015, almost 900 Garda members have been freed up from back office duties to front line policing because of civilianisation.
The Government has provided funding for 1,000 new Gardaí this year and we are seeing more Garda recruits enter Templemore approximately every 11 weeks.
The most recent An Garda Síochána recruitment campaign closed on 14 April 2023 and will ensure a steady pipeline of new Garda members into 2024. In tandem with this recruitment drive, additional reassignments of Gardaí to operational frontline policing and the continued roll out of the new Operating Model with its focus on community engagement will further consolidate Garda resources, enabling Gardaí to continue to deliver on An Garda Síochána’s mission of Keeping People Safe.
As you will be appreciate that, Garda recruitment was significantly and understandably disrupted when the Garda College at Templemore was necessarily closed during the COVID pandemic. The Minister engages regularly with the Garda authorities with a view to ensuring that every possible support is in place to deliver on this level of recruitment.
This significant investment demonstrates the Government’s commitment to increasing the Garda workforce to enable the organisation to keep our communities safe.
I hope this information is of reassurance to you
Yours sincerely,
Private Secretary to the
Minister for Justice