No new gardaí for West Cork from latest graduates

Of the 167 new gardaí who graduated from the Garda College in Templemore last week, none have been assigned to posts in West Cork.

A total of 19 new gardaí from Cork were sworn in, but only five will be assigned to garda stations in Cork.

Two of the new recruits will go to Cork city, in Gurranabraher and Togher, while three will go to the county, two to Midleton, and one to Mallow.

Independent Ireland leader Michael Collins has expressed his disappointment that none of the new recruits will be going to West Cork.

“This continues a longstanding and deeply concerning pattern of under-resourcing for West Cork communities, as evidenced by An Garda Síochána’s own official data on probationer allocations from 2015 to December 2025.

“Over this 11-year period, the four principal stations of Bandon, Clonakilty, Bantry, and Macroom received a combined total of just 48 new probationer gardaí.

“Notably, both Bantry and Macroom received zero new recruits from 2022 to 2025. This is a trend that has now extended into 2026 for all four of these stations,” Mr Collins said. 

“West Cork communities face the same serious challenges as anywhere else from burglary, antisocial behaviour, drug-related crime, and road safety concerns, yet we are repeatedly overlooked, and the facts bear that out.

“Towns and rural areas from Bandon, Clonakilty, Bantry, Macroom, and Skibbereen to Castletownbere deserve the same level of protection and visible garda presence as Dublin or anywhere else, which seem to hit the allocations jackpot every year.

“This persistent and disproportionate disregard is not just unacceptable, it is scandalous.”

The TD is calling on the minister for justice and theGarda Commissioner to immediately review allocation policies and to “prioritise fair, equitable distribution of new recruits, with particular attention to rural and regional areas that have been historically neglected”.