About 900 gardaí unavailable to work on an average day

There are only 12,000 gardaí available to work on an average day — even with the 290 new recruits in Garda stations, official figures show.

While the strength of the force at the end of September is 12,882, some 880 of those are not working on a given day.

Revelations of the effective strength of the force comes as the Government and Garda bosses face a fresh policing crisis with the loss of 300,000 garda hours — following the rejection of the Lansdowne Agreement by the Garda Representative Association (GRA).