The moratorium on new Garda recruits will be reviewed at the end of the year the Minister for Justice Alan Shatter has said.
Tomorrow will see the final group of Garda recruits graduate from Templemore training college for a number of years.
Mr Shatter said a deal between the previous government and the EU-IMF agreed to reduce garda numbers from 14,350 in January to 13,500 by the end of this year.
He said no mechanism had been put in place to facilitate the reduction in numbers and as such the Government is not in a position to recruit additional members to the force this year.
Mr Shatter told RTÉ's Morning Ireland it is important that there is a "regular flow" of young people into the Garda Síochána but he doesn't know if the Government will be in a position to recruit in 2012.
“We will look at the end of this year where we stand with the estimates. Much depends on the number of members of the force who retire in the coming months and who retire next year but I’m going to keep a very careful eye on this.”
The Minister rejected criticism from the Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors (AGSI) saying the move is a mistake.
And he said he didn’t accept the Gardaí Síochána will not be able to carry out its duty correctly due to lack of new recruits as the force is at its “highest number it has been at for a number of years”.
“I’ve absolute confidence in the ability of the capacity of the Garda force both this year and into next year to do the job that they are well able to do and which they do with very substantial expertise,” he added.
