An Garda Síochána Recruitment Training Capacity Group Report - September 2025

The Garda Recruitment Training Capacity Group was established in response to the challenges faced in trying to reach the annual Garda recruitment targets of 800-1,000 set by Government each year post-Covid. The Group began its work in August 2024. Membership of the Group included senior officials from An Garda Síochána, Department of Justice, the Department of Public Expenditure, NDP Delivery and Reform and publicjobs.

The Group’s main focus has been on improving the recruitment process to ensure that it can deliver sufficient numbers of trained new Garda Members to meet the current and future needs of An Garda Síochána in relation to its core purpose of Keeping People Safe.

The report describes the changes made by An Garda Síochána and publicjobs, to their end-to-end processes for the 2025 Garda Trainee recruitment competition. These changes, although an operational responsibility for each organisation, were based on the analysis and discussion of key data and impacts by the Group.