One in three Garda reserve hopefuls fail

MORE than one third of applicants to the Garda reserve force are failing entrance exams or interviews, new figures reveal.

Despite Justice Minister Michael McDowell driving through plans to beef up police numbers with some of the 7,100 civilians who have so far signed up, many are failing at the first hurdle.

The first interviews were held in September involving 374 of the reserve candidates. Of these, 138 people failed to pass either the interview or the written tests, department figures show.