Garda Recruitment - The Waiting Room

Delancey42, your a merchant of doom! But unfortunately you have a point and could be right, i heard on some news lately that in another country the imf went in to (prop Greece i think), they closed down a whole load of hospitals, so if there willing to do that then they wont be too worried about us. if they do bail us out it will be pretty much the imf running the country for the next few years.

However, that said, it hasnt happened yet so there is still hope, so untill it happens, keep hoping!

Geansai wrote: »

Very true. Whatever the terms are of the bailout, the interest rates will be alot cheaper than the current bond rates.

And yes, it is true that frontline staff are needed so hopefully this is be enough.

The flip side is, its an easy cost saver to let numbers slide. It wasn't that many years ago that garda numbers were 12k. I really hope this isn't what the government are thinking, but in desperate times, this may be an easier fix than some of the ways they should be actually saving money.

Just to clarify, Im in no-way saying they should do this, but this governemnt seems to be all about the easy route and not the way it should be done. Just seems to me that this is a potentially easy route for them to take. Doing nothing will save them money.

it's not that long ago that garda numbers were 12k, but it's also not that long ago since we were able to leave our front doors unlocked and our kids could walk safely to school without the inherrent fear that exists in Ireland today. We are living in a different society now where more gardai are needed. I know of an old lady in my home town who lives in a pleasant row of cottages mainly inhabitated by older people and families. She rang my dad in tears last week asking the town council to help her as a known druglord has moved in next door and is terrorising her, she rang the guards several times and they refused to send out a patrol car each time as they were under staffed. It's stories like this that ff should be made aware of as they sit on their laurels with their fat pay cheques doing f all!

senordingdong wrote: »

No it's not a rural fire service, it is an expensive police service for a cash strapped country. I bet FF would be happy to create a facade of a force by using reserves and then flaunting all the money saved to the ECB while the streets are in ruin.

And in this country it is always the frontline that is understaffed.

And so long as the Croke Park agreement exists, those unnecessary admin roles will remain, at the expense of the already stretched frontline.

the whole thing is really upsetting me. The government are spitting on the graves of those who died to make our country a republic. They may as well bulldoze the gpo while they're at it! I'm never been so ashamed to be Irish in my life

lets face it whatever way you look at it a loan or a bailout the imf have their foot at the door and wont let us close it. In my opinion i think the govt are trying to negotiate that it will be money for the banks as we have enough money to sustain the country until the middle of next year. Hopefully if that is the agreement then there should not be such stringent austerity measures and with retirements taking place they will hopefully have to recruit. Even at the current rate of retirements if they only took on 200/300 recruits a year the force would still become smaller over the next few years, so talks of no intakes for 4 years or so ( posted on another thread) would seem ridicoulous to me. Also on the other hand if imf did impose their austerity measures then they would slash public sector pay and those that are eligible for retirement would take thier lump sums and run. I'm still hoping for intake soon as its the only thing keeping me going.

Was just on kildarestreet.com and typed in a search for garda. The amount of questions asked about garda operations, strength and crime must be the highest its been in the last 2 years and in a lot of them Ahern states that no new recruits have been taken in. I know we all know this but usually he states the garda number including trainees and then states the trainees again separate to make it look like more.
The force is 14600 strong, with 357 up for retirement and I'd expect a lot more after the budget.
That will bring the numbers down closer the 14000 mark.
The I came across this debate which i found funny and fair play to Pat Rabbitte for raising the issue, Ahern looks like a thick.


Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour) Link to this Leaving aside Thornton Hall and whether the Minister or I will ever see it completed, is the Minister satisfied that it is the correct thrust of policy to seek to continue to provide more prison cells? Why are we not dealing with the situation of minor offenders not being incarcerated in prison? Why are we not dealing with the situation of more prisoners being incarcerated in open prisons, which are significantly cheaper per prisoner than is the closed prison regime of which the Minister has spoken?

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Dermot Ahern (Minister, Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform; Louth, Fianna Fail) Link to this It is the case that numbers have risen exponentially during the past number of years. This is as a result of there being more Garda and Garda activity on the streets. Garda numbers have increased from 11,500 to 14,600.

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Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour) Link to this It is evidence of more crime.

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Dermot Ahern (Minister, Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform; Louth, Fianna Fail) Link to this Perhaps Deputy Rabbitte is dense. The fact that there are more Garda on the streets means there is more Garda, court and judicial activity. The increase in the number of cases before the District Court is as a result of increased activity and investment.

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Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour) Link to this Do I take it then that the way to reduce crime is to reduce the number of judges and gardaí?

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Dermot Ahern (Minister, Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform; Louth, Fianna Fail) Link to this Given this, many more people are being convicted. It is the case that

Thanks for that link Devil , good to see the Italians near the top - Jesus , go to Rome and the place is full of cops.
In comparison to the UK there is a significant difference between them and us though.

I was going to take a break from boards posting,didn't last long...I was watching tv3 news at 5.30..Ursula Halligan said that her Govt. source informed her that the IMF will 'rubber stamp' the Govt's five year budget plan and it agrees with the Croke Park agreement which means there won't be any compulsory redundancies for Gardai as per GRA site.I think also from what I remember the IMF believes that the 6 billion upcoming budget offers sufficient cuts for the coming year and they won't introduce additional cuts.It will be a tough budget but it appears that it wont be as severe as Greece when the IMF went in there.
We will also be keeping our low corporation tax rate according to report.
Our country is in dire straits but the opposition and media in my opinion are making it even worse than it is.
I also spoke to another TD,informed me that panel is safe after consulting with Justice Department..same as we have read in kildarestreet.com.

Regardless of what TV3 or any other media service say the Croke Park Agreement is ( or soon will be ) history - the Government say it will remain - good for them but does anyone believe a thing from this government any longer ? A week of denials about a bail-out , thank God for the BBC or none of us might have known the truth.
OK rant over - whatever the position with recruitment I do see further pay cuts across the public sector , whether AGS members suffer cuts to basic pay or whether cuts are made to things like rent allowance remains to be seen.

I think that if one studies the facts that the Minister for justice is putting out are a little incorrect. On the 13th May 2010 he posted that the total strength of AGS was 14,532 with 229 unattested. At first might seem yeh ok. However there was only 2 intakes into the Garda College during that year. One in February the other in May. 100 started in February 93 started in May. It takes 58 weeks from point of start to point of attestation so the February batch would have been attested say mid March but yet his figures in May clearly state that there is 229 in training!

I can say fair enough to the batch that went in May 2009 they probably weren't attested when these figures were released. So that leaves a mysterious 126 Guards that were never there. Point of attestation means that you will be included into all Garda Strength statistics. It's hard to get a grip on the actual number because of two reasons. No1 the Government are Liars. No.2 When the Gardai release strength statistics they don't provide an actual date as to when a single Garda or group of Garda's retires. They release it by saying "expressed interest of retiring or have retired"

On recent figures including numbers that have retired to date the force is around the 14,000 mark. Mr Justice minister said two very important things. The 1st been "the force MUST be kept at the approved level of 14,500" and Secondly Garda entry's will depend on Garda retirements. Well Mr Minister it's about time you kicked off with this campaign you promised us back in April of this year!

It's a tough one to call..the six billion cut in the upcoming budget..will that be the final figure for 2011?The Govt. over the next few days/weeks will be discussing the terms and conditions of bailout so can the IMF impose further cuts on top of the six billion?
At the risk of repeating myself,the TD I spoke to informed me that we'd be brought in once funds are allocated to the Dept. so personally I'm not fearing the Govt's. budget..just what the IMF might do.

C-J wrote: »

the eternal question that rages in my brain! I start my new job tomo (decided to take it after a realistic view of things!) and would love nothing more than to have to pack it in before christmas to go on the beer with nothing but turkey in my belly and a letter from templemore with a starting date!!

Stick with the new job, your kidding yourself if you think anything is going too happen soon, just relax and what will be will be

Keep up the positivity C-J... its good to hear...!!;)

C-J wrote: »

and would love nothing more than to have to pack it in before christmas to go on the beer with nothing but turkey in my belly and a letter from templemore with a starting date!!

+1
I'm up for a bit of that!!:D Keep it positive, its not impossible.