It will take at least three years to increase the membership of An Garda Síochána by 1,200, as numbers are set to grow by only 200 this year, it has emerged.
While the Government has suggested 600 new recruits would be enrolled at the Garda College, Templemore, Co Tipperary, this year the real figure will be only 450, sources said.
That is just half the level of recruiting that the Association of Garda Superintendents (AGSI) last week said was needed to begin the process of rebuilding the capacity of the force.
Security sources who have seen the Government’s projections for increasing the force said that, while there were just under 12,800 gardaí in the force at present, that number will only have grown to 13,000 by the end of this year.
Projections
Best case scenario projections are that Garda numbers will not reach 14,000 again for another three years.
The modest plans for growing the Garda have been set by the Government despite the public disquiet over resources in rural communities and also in Dublin where gangland crime has increased after a calmer period in recent years.
News the expansion of the force will take place so slowly and over such a long period emerges after two gun murders within three hours in Dublin on Monday night.
The AGSI and Garda management that manpower has reached chronically low levels, but senior officers have insisted there had been no scaling back of the high visibility of policing put in place across Dublin when the Kinahan-Hutch feud erupted in February.
