Over 11,000 people in Ireland have applied to become Gardaí

An Garda Síochána revealed that 77% of applicants declared their ethnicity as "white-Irish".

Over 11,000 people have applied to become a member of An Garda Síochána in its latest recruitment competition. After closing for applicants last month, the competition received 11,075 applications, which marked a dramatic rise from 5,197 applications from the previous competition in 2019. It is planned that 800 people out of the 11,075 applications will be recruited for Garda training in 2022. Around 40% of the Garda applicants were women, while the vast majority of people who declared their ethnicity when applying were "White-Irish”. With the latter comprising over 8,570 applicants, this was a decrease from 88% in 2019 to 77% in 2022. An Garda Síochána released the following statistics regarding applicants:

• 598 said they were "White-Any Other White Background” (up from 347 in 2019)
• 43 said they were "White-Irish Traveller” (up from 14 in 2019)
• 55 said they were "Asian or Asian Irish - Chinese” (up from 7 in 2019)
• 332 said they were "Asian or Asian Irish - Any Other Asian Background” (up from 68 in 2019)
• 132 said they were "Black or Black Irish-African” (up from 23 in 2019)
• 22 said they were "Black or Black Irish – Any Other Black Background” (up from 8 in 2019)
• 122 said they were "Other including Mixed Background” (up from 37 in 2019)

1,196 people did not declare their ethnicity. Significant outreach work has been done by Garda personnel at local and national levels to encourage people from diverse backgrounds to apply to become members of An Garda Síochána. "In our centenary year, it is very gratifying to see the continuing high level of interest in becoming a member of An Garda Síochána," Garda Commissioner Drew Harris said. "This speaks to the connection we have with communities and the desire among citizens to give back to those communities by becoming a Garda. "The increase in applications from across all ethnic backgrounds is also very welcome and encouraging, as is the level of application from women. "We know we have a lot of work to do to become more representative of the public we serve, but this is a good start.”