An Garda Síochána will be almost 400 short of recruitment target this year

Stock picture: PA

The Government is set to miss its Garda recruitment targets again this year by nearly 400 new members.

The target for Garda recruitment is 1,000 new members per year.

A spokesperson for justice minister Jim O’Callaghan confirmed 149 probationer gardaí attested in March, 120 attested in June, and 154 attested in August, giving a total of 423 so far this year.

A further 199 trainee gardaí are scheduled to pass out in November.

Recruitment 378 below target

This means the Government is on track to recruit just 622 gardaí this year, some 378 below the target.

The spokesperson stated that 570 trainees have entered the Garda college so far this year, with a further 200 entering Templemore in November.

Mr O’Callaghan received funding in Budget 2026 to recruit 1,000 new gardaí next year.

Sinn Féin’s justice spokesman, Matt Carthy, suggested in July that the Government would be “lucky to match what they attested last year”, when there were 631 new gardaí.

“We’re underpoliced right across the board and there’s a huge reliance on overtime, which isn’t good and not sustainable in the long term,” he told the Irish Examiner.

The presidency of the European Council next year will be the biggest policing operation in the history of the State.

“That’s going to be happening at a time when there’s huge pressures on the gardaí, and there would have to be a genuine concern that there will be a whole series of policing gaps throughout that six months, particularly during the high-profile events.

“My guess is there will be periods of time where, potentially, there’ll be no roads policing done at all [or] community policing, where a lot of areas will see their guards pulled into Dublin for major events.

“That could be potentially very dangerous,” he said.