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 Templemore Garda Training College This piece of news will be of interest and welcome to many of our readers.
A new Garda recruitment drive is to be launched, following the lifting of restrictions on the moratorium on hiring new public servants.
It is expected that new officers will be recruited and begin training before the end of the year. This is to compensate for recent early retirement of senior members of the force, to keep Garda numbers up to approved levels.
The Minister for Justice, Mr Dermot Ahern stated:
“For the people living here in Templemore this college is very important – it’s a fine facility here and its here will be used for the new recruits and indeed for their training. I know there were some suggestions that this place might be mothballed, however there is no question of that”
Dermot Ahern made the comments following a meeting with the Garda Commissioner at a passing out parade for new recruits in Templemore, Co.Tipperary this morning, where 14 Tipperary men and women were among the 267 new Gardai graduating.
Police in Roscrea are busy today investigating machinery stolen from the M7 Motorway works site near Moneygall and an attempted armed raid on Moneygall Post Office.
 Police need your help. Machinery Stolen
In the former case, machinery estimated at around €60 thousand was stolen from a motorway works site near Moneygall, President Barack Obama’s ancestral home, overnight.
The machinery which consisted of two rock breakers, weighing over seven tonne, were stolen sometime between 9 o’clock last night and 6.30 this morning and investigators believe that the removal of this machinery would have required the assistance of at least an 8-wheeler removal vehicle .
Significant damage is also believed to have been caused to another ‘digger’ at this site possibly during the theft.
Armed Raid
In the latter, case a man fled from Moneygall Post Office following an attempted armed raid in the early hours of this morning.
A lone male, described as being around 5ft 11inches in height, wearing a dark tracksuit bottoms with a white stripe, a grey ‘Hoody’ and white standard runners entered the shop just before 7.00 am.
Producing a knife, he ordered the shopkeeper to hand over the contents of the till, however he ran from the shop, empty handed, when the owner began shouting for assistance.
As part of their investigations, Gardai in Roscrea are asking anyone who may have information regarding these events or who may have been in the vicinity, to contact them at Tel No.0505 24230.
New training reforms were outlined at a reservists’ passing-out ceremony in the Garda College on Friday last, at Templemore , Co.Tipperary.
New recruits will be given full policing powers, which will include the power of arrest, after just 34 weeks of training. Presently the current period, before such powers were conferred, was 58 weeks.
New applicants planning to join An Garda Síochána will only be successful if they have a driver’s licence, have first aid training and can swim.
Gardaí will also be offered a range of continuous learning options throughout their careers. Civilians, presently 2,700, working for the Garda force of 14,700 officers, will also be offered enhanced training along side their Gardaí counterparts.
This new training regime has been identified by the Garda Training and Development Review Group established by Garda Commissioner Fachtna Murphy and chaired by former HSE member, Pat McLoughlin.
Confirmation from the Minister for Justice Dermot Ahern that the Garda College in Templemore is safe, has been received by Independent Deputy Michael Lowry. Mr Lowry sought the assurances after local Templemore Town Councillors spoke of ‘rumours of imminent closure’ due to the current recruitment embargo. However operations at the college are expected to be cut back.
Templemore Garda Training College Plans for the 220-acre site at Clonmore, latter situated close to Templemore, Thurles, Co.Tipperary, which was ear marked for use as a firearms and as a tactical training facility three years ago, for €5.5 million, still remain on hold.
Minister Ahern assured Mr Lowry that the College would “not be closed for any period of time not withstanding the current recruitment embargo and the college will remains an integral part of the infrastructure of An Garda Síochána. It will continue to be used to train and up skill existing members of the force.”
Deputy Lowry communicated this information to a specially convened meeting of Templemore town Councillors and North Tipperary Oireachtas representatives in Templemore town hall on Monday night.
The Chief Superintendent Mr Jack Nolan, in charge of the college, has already assured all permanent staff at the college that their positions are safe. There is a problem with the positions of some of the catering staff at the college as they are not officially on the Department of Justice payroll, but a solution is currently being sought.
Deputy Lowry Stated:-
” While undoubtedly I would prefer new recruits to be going through the college and onto our streets, the current embargo gives the Gardaì the opportunity to engage in further training and up skilling for its current personnel. The main problem the force is experiencing at present is the retirement of senior members, and the vacuum of expertise and leadership that this has left. The recruitment freeze allows the Garda College the capacity to allow the training of existing officers for more senior and specialised roles, so that some of this deficit can be addressed.”
All eyes will now be focused on the implementation of changes to garda work practices recommended in last week’s report by the Garda Chief Inspector, former Boston police commissioner Kathleen O’Toole, to see if these changes will in any way effect the college’s future.
Chief Inspector O’Toole, in her recent published report, entitled ‘Resourse Allocation‘, recommends that advantage should be taken of future opportunities to acquire civilian staff with the required skills who may become available through increased mobility across the public service. Future recruitment of police officers should be linked to progress towards achieving an initial minimum target ratio of one member of police staff to every three serving police officers.
 Irish President Mrs Mary McAleese It was on the 7th of December 1959 that the first 12 Irish women graduated as members of An Garda Síochána from the Garda Headquarters at the Phoenix Park depot, Dublin.
Today there were now more than 3,000 female members, with women accounting for approx 22 per cent of the Garda force and the most senior female member of An Garda Síochána today holds the post of Assistant Commissioner.
President Mary McAleese will deliver the opening address at a conference to mark the 50th Anniversary of Women in Policing in North Tipperary today.
The President will be welcomed to the Garda College in Templemore, Co.Tipperary by the Garda Commissioner Fachtna Murphy.
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