Meath Garda numbers the lowest in the country as government misses recruitment target
A Meath TD has said that Garda numbers in the county are set to remain the lowest in the country, following confirmation that the government will fall significantly short of its national recruitment targets for 2025.
Sinn Féin TD for Meath East, Darren O'Rourke, was speaking following a response from the Minister for Justice which outlines that Garda recruitment numbers for 2025 will be between 600 and 650 — well below the 1,000 target set by the government.
“For Meath, this means a bad picture getting worse,” said Teachta O'Rourke.
"Everyone is in agreement that we need more Gardaí on our streets and in our communities. This is most important in Meath, where we have, for many years, had the lowest number of Gardaí per head of population.
Mr O’Rourke said the latest figures show Meath had just 317 Gardaí - “for a population now well in excess of 220,000 this is the lowest in the state, and wholly inadequate,” he added.
The government has committed to recruiting 5,000 new Gardaí over the next five years. However, O'Rourke says the current pace suggests this target is far from realistic.
"At a recent meeting of the Oireachtas Justice Committee, Minister Jim O'Callaghan admitted that 1,000 would not be recruited this year. Following that, the more accurate figures were confirmed in a Parliamentary Reply to my colleague, Mark Ward TD. The Justice Minister indicated that recruitment for this year will be between 600 and 650."
"This is a major shortfall and will have a very significant impact on communities across the state."
According to Mr O'Rourke, the figures now imply that to meet the 5,000 recruitment goal, over 1,000 new Gardaí will need to be hired each year from 2026 onwards.
"If they can’t come close to 1,000 this year, I don’t know how they will be able to recruit more than that for the remaining 4 years. These targets are not ambitious, they are dishonest.”
"We need a step-change from the Government. They must address the underlying causes of the Garda recruitment and retention crisis, and they must provide additional training capacity,” Mr O’Rourke said.