Justice minister urged to recruit rank and file gardaí

The organisation representing rank-and-file gardaí has called on Justice Minister Alan Shatter to recruit members immediately to the 13,000-strong force.

Garda Representative Association (GRA) president John Parker made the call yesterday after Mr Shatter filled vacancies in senior Garda ranks. These included appointing an assistant commissioner, chief superintendents and superintendents.

However, the GRA says that filling these posts, which had been vacant for months, needed to be done in conjunction with recruiting more rank-and-file members.

Mr Parker said that just a few years ago all political parties had agreed 16,000 gardaí were needed.

He said dwindling manpower and a lack of investment in vehicles was having a detrimentaleffect on preventing crime.

Ireland is the only country in the EU with no police officers in training.

It is nearly three years since the last trainees were accepted into the Garda Training College in Templemore, Co Tipperary.

“An Garda Siochána needs recruitment to begin immediately to replenish and revitalise a force that has already been reduced beyond its elastic limit and to replace those further garda retiring over the next two years. This is clearly not sustainable,” Mr Parker said. He claimed that during Celtic Tiger years gardaí mounted more patrols, but these were now being restricted as part of “cost-cutting” measures.

“The force is seriously underfunded and we need to redress manpower and lack of vehicles. In an economic downturn the last thing you do is to reduce policing,” Mr Parker said.