Garda entry age change may be followed by rise to retirement cap, says minister

A move to increase the Garda entry age limit could be followed by an increase to the retirement age for gardai, the justice minister has indicated.

Helen McEntee said she was in discussions with Public Expenditure Minister Paschal Donohoe about pushing up the current retirement age of 60.

Her comments came after she announced plans to increase the age limit to join An Garda Siochana from 35 to 50.

Ms McEntee was joined by Garda Commissioner Drew Harris at the latest Garda graduation ceremony at Templemore College in Co Tipperary on Friday for 126 newly trained recruits.

“Really, what I hope to see with this is a much more diverse workforce, but also people bringing different skills that they have acquired throughout their lifetime to this career, which is extremely rewarding,” she told reporters at Templemore.

The minister said “nothing was off the table” in regard to Garda recruitment and retention.

She denied increasing the entry age limit was an act of “desperation” to sustain Garda numbers.

“Absolutely not, I think we live in a different world,” he said.

“People are living longer, they’re healthier for longer, but also people change careers in the way that they haven’t before.

“Somebody might have gone into a particular role and stayed there forever. It’s not the case now, people change multiple times.

“And this gives us an opportunity, particularly where we have such specialists and diverse units within An Garda Siochana, for people to actually bring a level of expertise that we maybe haven’t seen before.”

The minister also acknowledged that her “ambitious” target of securing 1,000 recruits this year will fall short, with between 700-800 new gardai set to pass through Templemore by year end.

She said 2.3 billion euro of funding for the Garda outlined in Budget 2024 included provision for the recruitment of between 800 to 1,000 new gardai.

The entry age limit of 35 has been in place since 2004, when it was increased from 26.

Commissioner Harris was previously opposed to raising the limit further.

“We looked in closely at what the optimum age should be,” he said on Friday.

“And we’ve decided upon 50 in terms of the training investment that we make and then the return on that investment in terms of the work that they will be doing as gardai.

“So they have to go through obviously their training and their probation and we want them to get a return on that investment around being able to go out and patrol, conduct all their duties effectively, and really work with the rest of us in terms of protecting the people of Ireland.”

Mr Harris said he did not have concerns about bringing in an older cohort of recruits and dismissed suggestions the Garda could become a “handy number” or a type of “Dads’ Army”.

“The process of application and then the training here is rigorous, and it isn’t for the faint-hearted and does require a certain physical competence,” he said.

“All of our training standards here are very rigorous and that includes a physical element.”