Over 6,300 apply to become gardaí, including 2,300 applicants over 35

James Cox

Approximately 6,381 people have applied to An Garda Síochána under the recent recruitment competition.

It is only 10 months since the last Garda recruitment campaign, which attracted approximately 5,000 applications.

Approximately 2,300 applicants were aged between 35 and 49, following the Government’s decision to increase the entry age limit to apply to become a Garda trainee from 35 years to 50.

Almost 37 per cent (36.6 per cent) of applicants for the 2024 competition were people aged between 35 and 49.

Garda Commissioner Drew Harris commented previously that the entry age limit increase to 50 for this campaign provided the opportunity to people who thought their chance had passed or who were considering a change of career to join An Garda Síochána.

The latest Garda recruitment competition, which is being operated by the Public Appointments Service on behalf of An Garda Síochána, closed at 3pm on February 8th.

A Garda spokesperson said: "This level of applications coming less than a year since the last competition coupled with the fact that more than 2,000 applicants were aged over 35 confirms that interest in becoming a Garda is still high and it’s a job worth doing.”

Applicants will now enter into a competitive selection process involving a number of stages including online aptitude tests (Stage 1), competency based interview (Stage 2), and fitness test (Stage 3).

It is intended to run Garda recruitment campaigns on an annual basis to "ensure a steady stream of Garda trainees entering the Garda College".

At of the end of October 2023, there were 13,940 Garda members across the country (according to figures released by the Minister for Justice).