Too posh to police: Is a career in the Garda now a much harder sell?

Next week in the Garda College, Templemore, Co Tipperary, journalists will line up to perform the fitness test that all Garda recruits must pass if they want to graduate and become full-time members of the force. The planned media day is effectively a publicity stunt to drum up coverage for the latest Garda recruitment campaign under way.

It opened two weeks ago and both the Government and senior Garda management need it to go well. In the face of changing policing challenges, including the threat of far-right agitators and rising anti-immigrant sentiment, the Garda desperately needs more boots on the ground. It has even relaxed the entry requirements, with the maximum age of entry increased from 35 to 50 years.

The Garda Representative Association, which represents about 11,000 rank-and-file gardaí in a 14,000-strong force, and the Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors (AGSI) both say the Garda is now facing a retention and recruitment crisis.

They insist conditions must be made more attractive in a bid to stem rising resignations and boost the lower-than-expected recruitment levels of last year.

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For his part, Garda Commissioner Drew Harris said the numbers resigning are very small and are to be expected in a very competitive jobs market. He told The Irish Times recently some 14 per cent of Garda members due to retire on age grounds had applied for extensions, meaning more gardaí want to work for longer than to resign younger.

However, on the other end of the scale, what was once a trickle of younger members resigning has now become a steadier flow.

[ Garda reservists urged to join full-time force after changes to entry criteria ]

In 2016 there were 24 resignations, almost trebling to 69 in 2020. That grew further, to 109, in 2022, before surging to 162 last year.

Garda management is now seeking to increase the size of the force from about 14,000 at present to 15,000. Numbers had been as high as 14,750 – an all-time record – in spring 2020. But then the pandemic came, the Garda College closed and the strength of the force tumbled below 14,000.

Recruitment recommenced last year but it has been slower than hoped for, with planned intakes of 200 recruits as low as 130 to 150 as some successful candidates did not take up their places. Those missing recruits, coupled with much higher resignations, mean the growth of the Garda was much more sluggish last year than planned. And now the Garda is facing a decade of higher age-related retirements, a byproduct of accelerated recruitment 30 to 40 years ago.

Amid recruitment challenges, and concerning resignation trends, is a career in the Garda still attractive, especially with so many other jobs available across the economy?

What do serving Garda members say?

“I do still love it,” one Dublin-based garda told The Irish Times. “I’ll give out about the job, absolutely. But I always wanted to be a guard. It’s challenging; very, very hard. But the young people I see coming out of Templemore . . . they are enthusiastic as we were years ago. They’ve great energy and great go. We need more of them.”

Other sources say while they enjoy policing, they believe conditions have been eroded over the last decade. They say the Garda has not kept pace with the modern equipment needed to investigate crime. They also feel the shortage of Garda cars and the need for better driving training and more public order training has undermined the confidence of many when they go out on to the front line.

AGSI general secretary Antoinette Cunningham says the Garda “must reposition itself in the jobs market as an attractive” employer. For those who joined after 2013, when pension rules were changed, the pension on offer now “would not sustain anyone to have a decent standard of living” in retirement.

She also spoke of an “over-regulated force with an over-zealous approach to discipline” as well as “unsustainable administrative burdens”, saying these issues were triggering early retirements.

Maureen Lynch, managing director at Hays Ireland recruitment agency, said the Garda, like all employers, was trying to recruit and retain staff in an extremely competitive jobs market. About 90 per cent of employers had vacancies and more than 80 per cent were “looking for talent this year” in an already full-employment economy.

“And that means choice out there for individuals who are looking for opportunities,” she said.

Lynch pointed out that young workers – those aged from 18 years into their late 20s – were now seeking benefits from their careers that previous generations simply did not prioritise as much.

[ Government’s Garda recruitment targets falling short by more than 30% ]

“Pension might not be a priority at that mid-20s age,” Lynch said. “For the most part . . . purpose and flexibility comes across quite strongly now.”

Workers were no longer as “aligned” to the same career as they once were and most of today’s young workers would switch both jobs and career several times and see that as a “freedom”, she said.

While she doesn’t say it, those top priorities for today’s young workers in Ireland do not align with entering the Garda College – mostly in their 20s – and pursuing a full career in policing into their 50s and 60s.

Adrian McGennis, executive chairman of Sigmar Recruitment group, said the level of resignations from the Garda was evidence of “more attrition” across the jobs market, fuelled by more jobs and more choice.

Many Garda recruits now have third-level qualifications as they enter the force, meaning they have a “plan B” if policing is not for them. Against that backdrop, McGennis said he is perhaps not surprised some are joining the Garda and then deciding to move on after a period of years.

“I don’t think somebody would say: ‘I’m going to go into the guards because I’ve a third-level degree and I’m going to leave after a year’,” he said.

He said that looking at the lifestyle and work of a garda, there were “probably easier options out there – indeed there’s never been more”.

“In the financial services firms, for example, the staff are nearly dictating how many days they want to work from home,” he said. “And you obviously hear the cliches about the food in the canteens and the flexibility and even free bars – all these types of things,” said McGennis.

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“So while people are getting reasonably well paid in the guards compared to other roles, if you have a bad day at the office and you’re talking to your friend in the pub . . . They’re talking about knocking off at 3.30 on a Friday and getting drinks and maybe sitting in a cushy office or being allowed work from home two to three days a week . . . They’re saying they hit record sales this year so they’re getting a bonus. Or they have €50,000 in shares they can cash out over three years.”

He believed a Garda member hearing about those perks, especially from a friend they went to college with, who had the same qualifications as, would naturally begin to question if they had done the right thing opting for a career in policing.

McGennis said he believed the comparisons between the careers “would get to you”, adding that the jobs market was changing – remuneration, perks and flexibility enhancing – much faster than organisations like the Garda could change.

So has Irish society become, perhaps, too posh or too soft for very challenging careers such as policing?

“Oh definitely,” McGennis said. “You can see it in the [staff shortages] in frontline services or even in the retail industry or bar industry. And then you also have the sheer amount of people going to third level, which is in a way a good complaint.

“But it’s obviously a byproduct of an increasingly very, very successful employment landscape over the last 15 to 20 years. I’m sure some people in the past went into the guards because they didn’t have many choices. But now there are loads of choices.”

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