Garda numbers ‘will be 300 below minimum’

Garda numbers will have fallen to as low as 12,700 — some 300 below a minimum threshold set by Garda HQ — by the time 100 new recruits are on the streets next March, a staff association has warned.

And while 300 new Garda cars were purchased last year in a bid to plug the gaps in the ailing Garda fleet, some 500 cars were retired because they had reached the maximum safety limit of 300,000km.

The Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors said the Government was facing a growing crisis in terms of garda numbers and the state of the Garda fleet.