The Department of Justice has dismissed as "disingenuous" a claim by the Labour Party that the Government is not meeting its target to recruit 2,000 extra gardaí.
Labour spokesman on justice Mr Joe Costello said that at the current rate of recruitment it would take 36 years to meet the target.
|
He said the strength of the Garda on January 1st was 11,895. However, by this week the numbers had fallen to 11,739, a drop of 156.
"A number of probationer gardaí were attested on Thursday, bringing the numbers back up to 11,853, but this still shows a net decrease of 42 on the numbers in the force at the beginning of the year".
He said figures provided in reply to a written parliamentary question to the Minister for Justice, Mr McDowell, showed that numbers leaving the force were almost as great as the numbers being recruited.
However, a spokesman for the Minister said Mr Costello was "being a little bit disingenuous" with the figures.
He said that the changes in the strength of the force needed to be taken over a full year, from last June. In fact, since that time, Garda numbers had increased by 105 from 11,748 to 11,853.
In reality, around 300 new gardaí had been taken on since this time last year, but some had also retired, the spokesman said. "We will have a strength of 12,200, as the Minister promised, by Christmas of 2004," he added.