Preparations are being made at the Garda College in Templemore as the newly-appointed Minister for Justice Jim O’Callaghan announces that the 2025 Garda recruitment campaign will open for applications on 6 February. During the General Election campaign last year both Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael promised reform of the way Garda Recruits are trained by either opening a second training College or offering the training at existing Further and Higher Education facilities raising concerns about the status of the Templemore facility.
Minister O’Callaghan says the provision of more than €2.48 billion in Budget 2025 will support the recruitment of new Garda members, Garda staff and Garda Reserves. The Programme for Government also commits to providing funding to recruit at least 5,000 new Gardaí over the next five years although in recent years the government has failed to meet it’s recruitment targets for the Garda training college in Templemore.
The new recruitment campaign will open on 6 February and will be open for applications for three weeks. The 2024 Garda recruitment campaign received a strong response, with almost 6,400 applications, one third of which were from the 35-49 age group. That was the first time that those aged over 35 could apply.
Over recent years, the allowance for trainee Gardaí has been increased to €354 per week to attract more entrants and the maximum age of entry has also been increased from 35 to 50; while the mandatory retirement age has been increased to 62.