Cork TD warns of garda exodus despite record allocation of new recruits

Despite a record allocation of new recruits last week, the city still has fewer gardaí than five years ago and may be facing an exodus of gardaí through retirement, a Cork TD has warned.

Last Friday’s graduation ceremony at the Garda Training College in Templemore saw the assignment of 36 new garda recruits to the Cork city garda division.

It is believed to have been the single largest allocation of new recruits — known in An Garda Síochána as “probationers” — assigned to the city this century.

It followed on from August’s graduation ceremony, which saw 20 recruits assigned to the city, breaking a recent streak of single-figure allocations.

The new gardaí assigned to the city will be stationed initially to Anglesea St, before some will be moved to the suburbs.

Garda sources told The Echo that last week’s allocation of recruits is expected to be augmented by as many as 15 transfers to the city division.

Taoiseach Micheál Martin last week told The Echo that the new Cork probationers would significantly enhance garda visibility on the city’s streets.

New Garda Commissioner

High-visibility policing is a stated priority of new Garda Commissioner Justin Kelly, who succeeded Drew Harris at the start of September, and is seen by rank-and-file gardaí as more sympathetic to their concerns and those of the public.

At last week’s meeting of the Oireachtas committee on justice, Mr Kelly said it was his intention to replicate the recent high-visibility policy strategy rolled out in Dublin in other cities — starting in Cork.

Cork Resources

Garda resources in Cork have been a point of controversy for years, with numbers in Cork down by 9% in the city and by 3% in the county since the turn of the decade.

As of the end of August 2025, 1,280 gardaí were stationed in Cork — with 663 in the city and 617 in the county.

Cumulatively, that figure was down by 96, or 7%, from the end of 2019, when there were 730 gardaí in the city and 637 in the county.

The decision earlier this year to amalgamate the subdivisions of Douglas and Carrigaline, and Bishopstown and Ballincollig, as part of then commissioner Harris’s favoured policing model proved extremely controversial.

Offering a qualified welcome to Friday’s assignment of recruits to Cork, Sinn Féin TD for Cork South Central Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire said it had only happened as a result of pressure applied on Government and garda management by the people of Cork.

Mr Ó Laoghaire said: “Be sure that this progress would not have happened except that garda management and ministers for justice have been forced to accept the neglect of garda numbers in Cork city and county, and to recognise the reality of gardaí on the ground, and that fact that many stations remain behind where they were in 2020 and or 2019.

“We still have fewer gardaí in Cork than in 2020. We may still be facing a major number of retirements this year.”

Mr Ó Laoghaire added that he was calling on Chief Superintendent Tom Myers, who is in charge of the Cork city garda division, to clarify whether the mergers of the subdivisions of Carrigaline and Douglas, and Bishopstown and Ballincollig, would be reversed. The Garda Press Office has been asked for a comment.