Minister for Justice Alan Shatter has said he regrets the suspension of Garda recruitment but hopes to resume hiring recruits in the next 18 months.
He said the previous government had “destroyed” the Irish economy and made it necessary to engage in money-saving measures such as suspending Garda recruitment.
He was speaking at a passing out ceremony in the Garda College, Templemore, Co Tipperary, where the last class of 126 gardaí in the training system was graduating after their two-year training course.
No new recruits have been taken into the college since the public sector recruitment moratorium was put in place two years ago.
Mr Shatter said it would be 18 months before any new recruits were taken into Templemore. With Garda training taking two years, it means there will no new gardaí on the streets for at least three and a half years.
The suspension of Garda recruitment has been strongly criticised by the Garda Representative Association and the Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors.
Mr Shatter blamed the last Government for the national financial crisis, from which the Garda recruitment suspension had resulted.
“This is a decision made by the previous Government, which signed the EU-IMF agreement and destroyed the economy of this country. We now have a financial envelope in which we have to operate,” the Minister said.
“Happily today we’re going to have 126 new graduates coming out of the Garda College. We have 14,300 gardaí within the force at the moment, a great deal more than we had at the height of the troubles in Northern Ireland. I’ve absolute confidence in the Garda’s capacity to meet all obligations to continue the fight against crime and subversion.
“We will get back to a position where we can recruit new trainees into the force at the earliest possible date. I’m hoping that we will be in a position to restart that within 18 months.
“It’s a two year course. If we find ourselves in a position where a new course can start some time between May and next November, it’s two years from that point (that new gardai will graduate). But we have to live within our financial means. I can’t invent money in circumstances where it doesn’t exist.”
He insisted the Garda College would not close, saying it would continue to provide a wide range of courses to existing Garda members.
“This college has five different schools within it, four of them will continue on. We’re very anxious to get back to a situation where we can recruit additional members to the Garda Síochána. We’re in a position where we’ve inherited the estimates from the last government. The EU-IMF agreement has prescribed the necessity to reduce the Garda numbers from 14,500 to 13,000.
“As Minister, I’m told to effect a 1,000 reduction this year in circumstances which my predecessors didn’t prescribe how that could be undertaken. Unfortunately we’re in a position where we can’t start a new training session for recruits during 2011.”