Efforts to recruit gardaí are “quite strong” as the current drive to boost numbers in the force is due to come to a close this week.
This is the third year in a row that an annual Garda recruitment drive has been carried out as the Government pushes to increase numbers in the force.
Ads in newspapers, on television and on social media have taken place to push recruitment – with efforts being made to target Irish people living in the UK, US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
The last campaign, which closed in April 2023, received approximately 5,000 applications and at the end of 2023 there were 13,998 gardaí in the service – more than 1,000 below the Government’s target of 15,000.
Superintendent Liam Geraghty, of the Garda Press Office, said the current recruitment drive is “quite strong” and that they intend to continue to carry out recruitment drives every year.
Speaking to reporters at the Garda College in Templemore, Co Tipperary, for a media day, he said they had seen “good evidence” that people are choosing to become gardaí.
Supt Geraghty said: “At the end of the year, we had just under 14,000 guards in the organisation. Yes the number of retirements has increased, but in addition to us going out there trying to recruit into An Garda Síochána, lots of different companies in the private sector and in the public sector are also recruiting.
“But we see good evidence that people are coming and choosing An Garda Síochána to have a career of choice.
“We’ve seen teachers coming to us, doctors, medical students, we have people coming back from Australia, Canada and the UK, and from other police forces to come here to join An Garda Síochána because it is a job worth doing.”
The maximum age for applicants has been increased from 35 to 50 during this recruitment round in an effort to boost numbers.
Supt Geraghty said that one of the best performers on the bleep test on Tuesday was a 51-year-old man, and added that though there is a failure rate of around 30 per cent on the fitness test, it is mostly among those aged under 30.
He said: “We had people last year and in 2022 who were 35 and 36, very, very young fit men who couldn’t join us because of the age limit at 35. They can now come and join us and give 20-plus years of service to An Garda Síochána and to their country.
“People in the older age bracket come with an awful lot of life skills, common sense, knowledge and skills from the private sector that once they get past the probation stage in An Garda Síochána, might well stand to them in getting into detective units or scenes of crime units or economic crime units.”
Supt Geraghty said there are a lot of rumours and myths around about the Garda fitness test.
“It’s a basic fitness test that we would expect anyone who wants to become a member should be able to pass the test,” he said.
“There is a basic level of fitness needed (for somebody) coming to do what is an outdoor operational job.
“You will be required for long tours of duty even just standing on your feet, maybe as we saw yesterday in relation to protest marches, you will be on the beat for long periods of time, and yes there will be occasions where you will be required to run after a criminal or run to help somebody who might be in difficulty.”
Sinead Roche, who began at the Garda College at the end of July, was among those taking part in the fitness test on Tuesday.
The 24-year-old former SNA and personal trainer advised people to keep doing sit-ups and push-ups, and to extend their runs in preparation for the bleep test.
She said: “For the bleep test, even extend the runs. I know the bleep test is only a 20-metre shuttle run, but to extend them so maybe a fast 500 metres or a fast 1km and just to keep it up.”
Asked why she wants to become a guard, Ms Roche said: “I think the mental side of the job and the physicality of it, it’s always something I’ve wanted to do and they always say no day is the same.”
The deadline for this recruitment drive ends at 3pm on Thursday, February 8th.
