Only 18 of 100 Garda recruits are women

Fewer than one in five Garda recruits who have started their training at the Garda College in Templemore are women, following a recruitment policy which attracted 25,000 applications.

The 100 students officially welcomed to the force yesterday by Justice Minister Frances Fitzgerald and acting Garda commissioner Noirín O’Sullivan are the first to undergo training at Templemore since 2009, when recruitment was mothballed as a result of the recession.

Ms Fitzgerald did not commit to a timeline for the next wave of recruits to start at Templemore but said in a speech at the college: “It is my intention that there will be seamless ongoing recruitment as we have committed, and I will be making further announcements before the end of the year.”