Ward proposes fix for lack of Dublin gardaí

Sinn Féin spokesperson on Community Safety, Mark Ward TD, highlighted Sinn Féin’s newly launched proposals to address the recruitment and retention crisis in An Garda Síochána.

The new proposals include a significant improvement in increase in the Garda Training allowance, improvements in Garda pay, and the introduction of long-service incentives, the Dublin Mid-West TD said.

Ward said “our communities do not feel safe; there has been a lack of visible Gardaí in our communities and response times have been slow.”

“These are not issues with the Gardaí themselves, but the recruitment and retention crisis ongoing in An Garda Síochána over the years.  The low numbers of Gardaí is having a significant impact on community safety and on crime prevention. There is a significant shortfall in many areas of policing, including community policing and roads policing. There is an ongoing over-reliance on Garda overtime for routine policing work.”

The Sinn Féin TD said “there has been a lot of focus on Garda Recruitment campaigns, including the large numbers who have applied. The government can talk about large numbers applying all they want, if this is not translated into any significant increase in the numbers of Gardaí available to police our towns and communities, then it is not worth the speeches or press releases. In the first eight months of 2025, there was a net increase of just 178 new members of An Garda Síochána despite over 11,000 applications to the two recruitment campaigns held this year.”

“The cost-of-living crisis is affecting recruitment and retention and the fact that An Garda Síochána is now trying to recruit more mature applicants, the training allowance of €354 is clearly not near adequate. There are also no incentives for Gardaí who have resigned to return or for those with 30 years of service to remain in their positions.

“Sinn Féin has launched a comprehensivsue policy document. We have set out a number of steps that should be taken to address the recruitment and retention crisis in An Garda Síochána.

“These include:

•             Increase the Garda training allowance to €579.15 per week (equivalent to the minimum wage) from 2026

•             Increasing the maximum capacity per intake at the Garda training college by 50 to 275 per intake

•             Targeted recruitment in working class communities

•             Introduce a return to policing grant to incentivise those who have left to rejoin

•             Removing points on the garda pay scale to enable Gardaí to progress faster up the pay scale

•             Introducing an annual long-service payment of €2,500 for all Gardaí who have served 30 years or more

•             Increase the mandatory Garda retirement age to 65.

“I am calling on the Minister for Justice Jim O’Callaghan to adopt these proposals to make joining and remaining in An Garda Síochána a more attractive option and to ensure we have the Garda numbers needed to deliver safer communities,” Ward said.