"Australia Better At Recruiting Gardaí from Ireland, Than This Government" - Tóibín
The Aontú leader Peadar Tóibín TD has heavily criticised the government for failing to recruit enough Gardaí in sharp contrast to a drive for police launched by Australia targeting Gardaí in Ireland. His comments come as news breaks today that Garda numbers fell significantly over the summer months.
Speaking this afternoon, Deputy Tóibín said: "Over the past month South Australia Police have been running an international recruitment drive, focused in particular on New Zealand, Britian and Ireland. As part of this drive they ran advertisements in the media in Ireland including in the Irish Independent on 8th August this year. So many of our country's problems are stemming from our government's utter failure to properly recruit, protect and invest in the Gardaí. Fine Gael has held the Justice portfolio for over a decade but the demise of the force and of law and order in general was particularly felt during the end of 2022 and the first six months of 2023 when Simon Harris was Minister for Justice".
Deputy Tóibín continued: "Aontú has done a lot of research in this area and have secured a batch of statistics from the Department which appear to show a direct correlation between road deaths and police recruitment. Shockingly between 2021 and 2023 some 32% of Gardaí who left the force were not replaced. Our figures show that 488 Gardaí either retired or resigned last year (2023), the highest number on record. There were 169 resignations and 319 retirements. In the same year 388 Gardaí graduated from the Garda Training College. In 2021, 2022 and 2023 there were more Gardaí leaving the force than joining. Across that three-year period there were 906 people qualified from templemore, while 1,325 Gardaí either retired or resigned".
"Is it any wonder we're seeing such chaos in terms of crime across the country? The continual decline in Gardaí culminated, in my view, in the burning of O'Connell Street and widespread looting we saw in November. There is pure and utter chaos within the Gardaí at present, and it is clear the government are losing control when it comes to law and order. The number of Gardaí charged with roads policing is down, the number of Gardaí in the Garda National Immigration Bureau charged with tackling illegal immigration is going down year on year. When one looks at these figures and the number of road fatalities we can see that the years with the worst garda recrutiment and retention are the years which saw the highest road fatalities in recent years. The forthcoming budget must make policing a worthwhile career, the government must put their money where their mouth is and take budgetary measures to encourage recruitment to the Gardaí. They must also commit to supporting Aontú's legislation which seeks a mandatory minimum sentence for anyone who assaults a Garda", concluded Tóibín.
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