There have been just under 2,000 crashes and collisions involving gardaí and ministerial drivers over the five years to the end of 2005, according to figures released by the Department of Justice.
The figures also suggest that the trend of crashes is upwards, with 423 recorded last year, 63 higher than in 2001. Details of the crashes were released by Minister for Justice Michael McDowell through a Dáil reply.
The data includes garda drivers of ministerial cars; in 2005 there were four crashes involving these drivers.
The State is also facing 494 compensation claims from crashes and collisions involving gardaí, according to figures released by Mr McDowell.
According to Department of Justice data, between 250 and 300 new claims are lodged against the State each year as a result of crashes involving Garda vehicles.
So far this year 232 claims have been lodged: in 2005 there were 299, and in the previous year there were 244. In roughly 20 per cent of these cases, the garda involved was driving under chief's permissions.
Chief's permission allows a local chief superintendent to provide written permission to an officer who has not completed the basic driver training course to drive an official car. This only applies to officers who have a full driving licence.
In February, in response to a question from Fine Gael spokesman on justice Jim O'Keeffe, the Minister said there were 2,013 gardaí driving on chief's permissions.
The total number of Garda vehicles is 1,525, with a further 296 assigned to Garda HQ.
Mr O'Keeffe said: "I am very concerned about the situation in the Garda training school. It is clear there were not adequate training places there, and huge numbers driving on chief's permission.
"Chief's permission is all very well for temporary situations. What was designed to cover temporary situations became the norm. I think it is unfair to the gardaí involved, and it is unfair to the public from a road safety point of view."
Mr O'Keeffe said he understood that the capacity of the Garda driving school was being increased beyond the existing 720 places per annum capacity.
In response to a query, the spokeswoman for the Commissioner, said that he is examining the capacity of the driving school.
In a bid to reduce the number of such claims, the State Claims Agency (SCA) carried out a study of the factors causing collisions leading to such claims.
This study, The Risk Management Review of Road Traffic Accidents involving An Garda Síochána, compared the claims data and crash data to decide the different factors involved in such crashes, including training, vehicle maintenance, weather, speed and human error.
It is understood that vehicle maintenance has been largely ruled out as a factor. However, improvements in training are understood to have been recommended. It benchmarks the performance of Garda drivers against those in UK police forces.
However, the Department of Justice has refused to release this report saying it is confidential, and that to do so "might inhibit the capacity of the SCA to carry out such risk reviews in the future", according to Mr McDowell.
