GRA ‘completely underwhelmed’ by offerings for gardaí in budget

The body representing frontline members of An Garda Síochána said it is “disappointed and completely underwhelmed” by Budget 2026.

Under the budget, the Department of Justice, Home Affairs, and Migration is set to receive an allocation of €6.17bn.

That is to be used for the recruitment of up to 1,000 trainee gardaí in 2026, an additional 200 civilian staff, further intakes into the Garda Reserve, and will include a €19m increase to the garda overtime budget.

However, the Garda Representative Association (GRA), which has almost 12,000 rank-and-file garda members, has said the budget has failed to address many of its concerns.

GRA general secretary Ronan Slevin said there was “a dire and urgent need for more garda members”, but added that there appeared to be little or no strategy on recruiting them.

“This is the third successive budget that has promised 1,000 recruits, yet we have seen just over 600 come through Templemore each year, which barely covers the losses through retirements and resignations,” he said.

“This budget does nothing to address the issues we have continually raised regarding the garda training allowance which sits more than €200 per week below the minimum wage and fails to tackle the challenges with retention of members.”