Sinn Féin Spokesperson for community safety and youth justice, Mark Ward TD, has said that the government is failing to make any progress at tackling the recruitment and retention crisis in An Garda Síochána after new figures show that there are 140 fewer Gardaí stationed in Dublin compared to 2020.
The figures were released to Sinn Féin in response to a Parliamentary Question.
The Dublin Mid-West TD said, “we have too few Gardaí to police our communities. Too few Gardaí to prevent crime and to prevent young people becoming involved in crime. Too few Gardaí in Community Policing and too few Gardaí in Roads Policing.”
Figures released to Sinn Féin found that as of May this year, there were 140 fewer Gardaí stationed in the Dublin division compared to 2020
“There was a lot of fanfare from Minister O’Callaghan earlier in the year about the recruitment drive. But nothing has been achieved in terms of increasing the number of Gardaí available to police the streets of Dublin. In fact, there has only been an increase of 3 Gardaí in Dublin since December just before the Minister took up the role,” Ward noted.
“This is not good enough. It is putting our communities at risk, and the failure to recruit new officers will inevitably lead to more overworked and overstretched Gardaí leaving the force.”
The Sinn Féin TD said, “what the government is doing is not working. There are serious problems in terms of recruitment and retention which the Minister is simply not addressing. The number of recruits coming out of Templemore is not keeping up with the amount that are retiring, leaving or being redeployed.”
“Large numbers may be applying to join the Gardaí but no intake over the last two years has seen the training college operating at full capacity. The government is nowhere near reaching its target of training 1,000 Gardaí a year.
“There needs to be a significant increase in the Garda training allowance, taking into account both the cost of living and the fact that those in the older age groups now being asked to join the Gardaí are more likely to have existing financial responsibilities that make this allowance unworkable.
“To address the retention crisis, there also needs to be a focus on addressing the current disincentives that exist in terms of retaining those Gardaí who have 30 or more years service of which there are now over 1,000.”