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.

“We are down below the magic number of 13,000,” said AGSI president Tim Galvin, citing the minimum threshold set by the former Garda commissioner Martin Callinan.

Mr Galvin said that 100 new recruits would be starting in Templemore College at the end of July, which he said would be on the street and in stations next March.

“We are losing between 20 and 30 members a month with retirements, so by then another 170 or so will be gone, so we will be down to 12,700 or 12,800.”

He said the numbers retiring would continue in the following years, further reducing the overall number.

“The number going to retire next year and the following years will be substantial. The crew recruited between 1983 and 1987 (there are about 1,000 of them) they can retire in the next two or three years.”

Mr Galvin said the AGSI have been highlighting for years the “ticking timebomb” of the fleet, as highlighted by Bob Olson, the head of the Garda Inspectorate, earlier in the week.

“We’re losing a car a day,” said Mr Galvin, “With the budget last year we bought 300 cars, but we lost 500.”

He said the force was swapping cars between rural and urban areas in a bid to delay vehicles hitting the 300,000km limit. He said there were now traffic units, drug units and RSUs (regional support units) that were approaching the 300,000km mark.

Interim Garda Commissioner Nóirín O’Sullivan said the force, like the rest of the public service, was living in a time of “constrained resources”.

She said Garda numbers had dropped below 13,000, but said that recruitment had restarted. She said she had “adequate resources” to police the country and added that 142 cars had been bought so far this year.

Justice Minister Frances Fitzgerald said €4m was being spent on the fleet this year, which would make a “substantial improvement”. She accepted Garda numbers were slightly below 13,000 and said she wanted to keep it at that, and no lower.

Mr Galvin said the AGSI had met Ms Fitzgerald twice in recent months, which he described as “very positive”. He said the proof regarding the new minister’s good intentions will be in the pudding.