Templemore Garda Training College
It was Garda Commissioner Mr Martin Callinan who told an Oireachtas Justice Committee in November 2012 last, that he would not like to see his Garda Force sink below 13,000, before new recruitment resumes.
Current natural wastage through Garda retirements runs between 250 and 450 per year, thus signalling that Garda numbers will fall below 13,000 before any new Garda recruits can take up postings late next year or in early 2015, since all new recruits are required to complete a 32 week period of training before being posted to selected stations.
In realistic terms this would indicate that if new recruits are not sought to begin their training immediately or within the first three months of 2014, then it would be early 2015 by the time they could be granted station posts, thus reducing Garda numbers to several hundred personnel below the specified required 13,000.
It was expected that the Minister for Justice Alan Shatter would use the latest ‘Budget 2014,’ to inform this country of his future plans for such recruitment. However while Budget 2014 appears to grant a commitment to resuming Garda recruitment, it failed to indicate a specific date regarding the lifting of any current staff embargo.
As part of the terms of our EU-IMF bailout, the Troika had stipulated that Garda numbers were to be reduced to 13,000 by the end of 2012. They were not, rather instead overtime and wages were cut to meet the cost overspill. It was anticipated that while numbers would be reduced close to 13,000, it was never imagined that Gardaí numbers would be allowed to fall below Commissioner Callinan’s required stated level.
In July of this year Fine Gael Justice Minister Alan Shatter stated that it was very important for an organisation like An Garda Síochána, given the demanding nature of policing, to receive a reasonably regular intake of new recruits. He also stated he would be making arrangements with the Public Appointments Service, so that they could do the necessary preparatory work to deal with new applications later this year.
Earlier in February 2013 Deputy Noel Coonan TD warmly welcomed positive news from his Fine Gael colleague, Justice Minister Alan Shatter, that the Government was now to review its position regarding the future recruitment of new Gardaí.
In his statement of February last Deputy Coonan said; “Garda numbers have been reducing, due to the moratorium on recruitment put in place by the previous Government as part of its plan to reduce the strength of the force to 13,000. Our objective, despite the enormous financial pressures facing the Government is to ensure that Garda numbers will not fall below 13,000. At Wednesday’s Cabinet Meeting, Minister Shatter announced the good news that recruitment may recommence as part of a wider determination to ensure that the Garda Síochána, as a body, has the greatest possible resources made available to it, and that it is supported in making the necessary new reforms to ensure that those resources are used to the greatest effect.”
For A Ha’porth Of Tar The Ship Was Lost
Despite cuts in pay, cuts in staff numbers and cuts in overtime, no commitment to future Garda recruitment has commenced, despite the continued diminishing of services to the taxpaying public.
To my knowledge no Troika members were in attendance at the funeral of a murdered Dundalk detective earlier this year, to apologise, seek forgiveness or offer their sympathy to his family.
However, no doubt the huge financial cost now incurred by the State, following this detectives unnecessary death was discussed, yet the moratorium on Garda recruitment continues to be ignored.
Commissioner Martin Callinan, the failed leader of the Gardaí talking through his backside about what he would and would not like to see. If he told me the time of day I’d still check me watch, that’s how little trust I have in that spineless man. Come down to rural Ireland at 4am and he’ll see exactly the effect that the lack of Gardaí is having on this country, gangs coming down from Dublin every few nights breaking into houses, business premises and any building whatsoever where there might be something of value and not a guard in sight. Then again, if you were the local guard in your 04D Mondeo with 250k on the clock, armed with nothing more than a baton, would you take on these well armed criminals. Nah didn’t think so…. And all the while, Martin and Alan sleep soundly in their beds.