Richard O'Donoghue: Asks why 180 Gardaí are resigning
Richard O'Donoghue presses the Taoiseach over Garda resignations, training numbers and recruitment. He cites roughly 14,600 Gardaí, 621 in training, and about 180 resignations a year outside retirement, and asks for a targeted study to find the reasons.
Richard O'Donoghue highlights a recurring pattern: while there are healthy intakes at Templemore and oversubscription for places, roughly 180 members are resigning from An Garda Síochána each year outside of retirement. He asks why this trend persists and urges a survey of those who left.
The Taoiseach responded that overall recruitment is strong, noting substantial allocations from Templemore to Dublin, Cork, Limerick and other counties. O'Donoghue acknowledges the recruitment drive and the increased numbers entering training.
Both recruitment and retention are raised as linked issues. O'Donoghue points to the need for the Gardaí to evaluate departure reasons and suggests a formal study or survey to identify underlying causes despite steps like increasing the retirement age.
Resignations and training numbers
Richard O'Donoghue highlights a recurring pattern: while there are healthy intakes at Templemore and oversubscription for places, roughly 180 members are resigning from An Garda Síochána each year outside of retirement. He asks why this trend persists and urges a survey of those who left.
Recruitment progress
The Taoiseach responded that overall recruitment is strong, noting substantial allocations from Templemore to Dublin, Cork, Limerick and other counties. O'Donoghue acknowledges the recruitment drive and the increased numbers entering training.
Retention and next steps
Both recruitment and retention are raised as linked issues. O'Donoghue points to the need for the Gardaí to evaluate departure reasons and suggests a formal study or survey to identify underlying causes despite steps like increasing the retirement age.
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Transcript
Taoiseach, at present there's 14,621 Gardaí, there's 621 in training at the moment. But the problem we have at the moment, Taoiseach, is we have 180 resigning from the Garda services outside of retirement. Why do you think this is a problem? It's reoccurring that we have that amount in training at the moment, but we have 180 resigning every year. And that trend is there over the last two years. Why do you think that is? Taoiseach, please. Sorry, Deputy, I mean, about 14,500. There will always be people who will either leave a particular job or occupation. I think there would have to be a study done or a survey done of the 189 specifically to ascertain why they decided to leave on Garda Síochána. The good news is that we're oversubscribed in terms of applications, and there's very healthy numbers going into Templemore now on a regular basis now to qualify to become a member of on Garda Síochána. And those that are coming out of Templemore are then being allocated in fairly sizable numbers. It began with Dublin two years ago, Cork secured a good few, Limerick, and across the country. So over time, I think there'll be a significant increase because of the resources we've put behind recruitment of on Garda Síochána. But equally, retention, we increased the retirement age significantly. But again, that's a matter that the Gardaí should evaluate and do some underlying surveys. Are there underlying reasons?