Minister Helen McEntee receives government approval for regulations to pave the way for new Garda Reserve recruitment campaign
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From: Department of Justice
- Published on: 20 February 2024
- Last updated on: 3 June 2024
The Minister for Justice Helen McEntee has today received Cabinet approval for updated regulations on recruitment, training and deployment of the Garda Reserve.
She has committed to launching a recruitment campaign as soon as possible and has set a target of 1,000 Garda Reserves by 2026, to further support Garda members nationwide.
The Garda Reserve is a voluntary body drawn from the community to assist An Garda Síochána with local patrols and crime reduction initiatives, policing major incidents and events, and providing operational support to regular Garda members on the basis of the reserve member’s skills or local knowledge.
Welcoming the approval by Cabinet, Minister for Justice, Helen McEntee said:
“Joining the Garda Reserve is an excellent way to give back to your community, to help make it safer, and to get experience of and an insight into working with An Garda Síochána if that is your longer term career ambition.
"The new Regulations provide for a more modern approach, particularly in relation to training. The Garda Commissioner will be in a position to recruit new members of the Garda Reserve and a recruitment campaign is planned for the very near future. It will target a broad and inclusive range of candidates, in keeping with the Reserve's role as a visible form of community engagement.
"It is a priority for me to ensure An Garda Síochána has all of the support it needs to provide the world-class police service we have all come to expect. Building up the Garda Reserve to at least 1,000 members by 2026 to ensure it can meet its full potential is part of that mission.”
Notable changes in the new Regulations include:
- additional flexibility for training components that ensure new Reserves are trained efficiently and to a high standard enabling Reserve members to have the skills to take up active duty more readily
- changes to enable more effective deployment of Garda Reserve members
- updates to Reserve members’ hours on duty – Currently, the maximum hours a Garda Reserve member can be requested to work is 208 hours in any 12-month period. Under the new Regulations, Reserves can make themselves available for more hours, should they choose to do so
- updated and modernised educational requirements to reflect changes that were introduced to the Leaving Certificate grading system in recent years
The work of a Garda Reserve is varied and interesting, for example:
- working along-side the Garda Road Traffic Unit
- ensuring public safety during State visits by foreign dignitaries
- assisting in public order incidents and in some cases assisting in prosecutions
- assisting with crowd control at events such as concerts, sporting events
- assisting with the regular day-to-day work of An Garda Síochána
Notes
As part of the government’s plan to modernise and strengthen An Garda Síochána, the Garda Commissioner has developed a Garda Reserve Strategy 2021-2025, which provides a roadmap for the development of this important service.
The Strategy, published in October 2021, is informed by an internal review of the Reserve, and sets out key commitments including recruitment, training and development, deployment, governance and evaluation.
The Garda Reserve was established in 2006. There are currently 351 serving Garda Reserve Members, at its peak in 2013 the number of Reserve Gardaí reached 1,164.
Under the Garda Síochána Act 2005 (as amended), the Garda Commissioner is responsible for the administration and management of An Garda Síochána, including the recruitment and training of Garda members and staff, including members of the Garda Reserve.
It is expected that a recruitment campaign will launch in Spring 2024.