Over 11,000 Apply to Join An Garda Síochána in 2025 as Diversity Continues to Grow

More than 11,000 people have applied to join An Garda Síochána through two recruitment competitions held in 2025, with the latest figures showing continued strong interest from older applicants and increased diversity among candidates.

The most recent competition, which closed on 9th October 2025, attracted 4,334 applications, adding to the 6,784 received in the February 2025 campaign. Notably, 57% of the latest applicants were first-time candidates for Garda recruitment.

The September/October competition maintained strong interest from people over 30, with 40% of applicants in this age category, slightly down from 42% in February. The trend towards increased diversity also continued, with 23% of applications coming from categories other than "white Irish", including Asian (5%), black (2%), any other white apart from white Irish (13%), and other including mixed backgrounds (3%).

This represents a significant shift from 2019, when 88% of applicants described themselves as "white Irish". In the latest competition, this figure stood at 70%, with approximately 7% preferring not to say or leaving the field blank.

Women accounted for 32% of applicants, slightly above the current Garda workforce composition of approximately 30% female officers, which is higher than the average for European police services.

Garda Commissioner Justin Kelly said:

"This number of applicants so soon after our last competition in February demonstrates there is a lot of interest in making a difference to communities by becoming a Garda. We can offer a varied career where no day is the same. It is not an easy job, but it is a job worth doing. This level of applications will give us a strong pipeline of Garda Trainees as we seek to further grow the number of Gardaí this year and in the coming years."

The competition is being conducted by publicjobs.ie on behalf of An Garda Síochána. Eligibility assessments are now underway, with online assessments scheduled to begin in late October. Competency-based interviews are expected to commence from late November.

Successful candidates will then complete the appointments process, including a physical competency test, medical examination, substance misuse testing, and vetting. Some successful candidates from this competition are anticipated to begin training at the Garda College in 2026, while candidates from the February 2025 competition are currently undergoing training.

As of 30th September 2025, there are 14,325 Gardaí serving, with 564 Garda Trainees currently in training. The next group of trainees will be sworn in as Gardaí in mid-November, with a new intake entering the college shortly afterwards. Recruit classes now enter the Garda College every 11 to 12 weeks.

An Garda Síochána offers a unique training programme where candidates receive €354 per week during their 36 weeks of training and graduate with a Level 7 Bachelor of Arts Degree in Applied Policing, accredited by the University of Limerick. Food and accommodation are provided free whilst resident in the Garda College.

The latest recruitment competition was supported by a €671,000 promotional campaign under the tagline "It's a Job Worth Doing", featuring online video, national and local print and radio, social media, and outdoor advertising across Ireland.

The campaign, produced by Core and Spark Foundry in conjunction with creative video agency Rubberduck, delivered approximately 60,000 clicks to publicjobs.ie through paid online and social media channels including Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, and Facebook. The recruitment videos were viewed over 600,000 times on gaming platform Twitch and more than 250,000 times on YouTube.

Content produced in-house by the Garda Office of Corporate Communications generated over 5 million views on An Garda Síochána's social media channels, with the recruitment podcast recording over 500 hours of listening time. The office won Best Integrated Campaign at the 2025 PRII Communication Impact Awards for its work promoting the February Garda recruitment competition.