The Government will reveal plans to recruit 300 members of the Garda Reserve this year as part of its efforts to increase the size of the force to 2,000 members by 2021.
According to the Irish Times, the Government want to encourage people seeking a career in An Garda Síochána to first serve as a Garda reserve, which is a part-time, unpaid role.
Currently, there are approximately 700 members of the Garda reserve, whose principal role consists of local patrols and crime reduction initiatives, targeted at specific local urban or rural problem areas.
Members of the Garda Reserve are also involved in policing major incidents and events, and in providing other operational support to regular Garda members on the basis of an individual Garda reserve member’s skills or local knowledge.
According to the Irish Times, the Government plan to expand the Garda reserve membership to 2,000 members by 2021, with Tánaiste and Minister for Justice Frances Fitzgerald suggesting that joining the reserve would increase the chances of becoming a full-time member of An Garda Síochána as reservists would have “undergone training in many of the skills required to be an effective full-time member”.
President of the Garda Representative Association (GRA) Ciaran O’Neill expressed his belief that resources should be directed towards full-time members of An Garda Síochána rather than towards the expansion of a part-time reserve force.
“The issue of Gardaí being properly supervised and guided by senior members was raised by the Morris tribunal and the in more recent Garda Inspectorate reports,” O’Neill is quoted as saying in The Irish Times.
“And in recent months the O’Higgins Commission found inexperienced probationary Gardaí had been often unsupervised, and partially trained Gardaí were tasked with the investigation and prosecution of crime normally tasked to experienced detectives.”
For more information on the Garda reserve and how to join, click here.
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