New garda recruitment drive needs to benefit County Kildare

25th September 2013

Fine Gael TD for Kildare North, Anthony Lawlor, today (Wednesday) welcomes the announcement by Justice Minister Alan Shatter TD that after five years, the recruitment of new gardaí is set to commence again next year. Anthony Lawlor TD is hopeful that this new intake will address the shortage of gardaí in County Kildare.

“The lack of gardaí in County Kildare has been a widespread problem for some time and I am hopeful that this new recruitment drive will begin to address the problem. It is well known that the ratio of garda per head of population is significantly lower in Kildare than elsewhere in the country. I appreciate that due to the economic crisis the moratorium on public recruitment was necessary but it has had a severe adverse effect on the garda force in Kildare.

“I will now be calling on Minister Alan Shatter to commence this new recruitment drive without delay and, although it won’t be imminent, that once qualified Kildare will be given first preference in terms of garda allocation in order to bring the County’s force in line with other counties.

“Although the Minister is currently unable to state how many recruits will be taken in, as this is calculated by the number of retirements, it is still heartening to hear that recruitment is commencing for the first time since 2009.”

ENDS