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MINISTER FOR JUSTICE Helen McEntee has announced a new recruitment drive for Garda reserves, which opens for applications today and closes on 4 July.
McEntee has set a target of having at least 1,000 reserves by 2026. There are currently 332 active reserves, according to An Garda Síochána.
The Garda Reserve was founded in 2006. It is a volunteer service drawn from local communities and at its peak in 2013 it had 1,164 members. Reserves work alongside full-time gardaí and assist in a variety of policing tasks.
Those include helping with traffic policing, boosting Garda numbers during State visits, policing public order incidents and assisting with crowd control at large scale public events.
“Reserves bring a variety of experiences and perspectives to the organisation, including local knowledge and links to the communities in which they serve, which brings to life An Garda Síochána’s core value of community policing,” McEntee said.
McEntee’s Justice Department said it had secured an increase in the maximum tax-free stipend paid to reserve members from €1,000 per year for over 100 hours of volunteering to €3,000 for over 200 hours of volunteering in a year.
A graduated scale of stipend will apply depending on the total number of hours volunteered, the Department said.
“This is part of my overall plan to boost Garda recruitment,” McEntee said.
Garda recruitment and retention has been an ongoing difficulty for the Government and one measure taken by McEntee was raising the minimum age for applicants to join the full-time force.
“We have significantly increased the Garda Training allowance by 66%, increased the age of entry from 35 to 50, and will shortly enact legislation to increase the mandatory retirement age from 60 to 62,” the minister said.
“This year 6,300 people applied to join An Garda Síochána, a significant increase on the number applying last year.”
She said that “no stone will be left unturned” and that she was continuing to look at additional measures to help boost recruitment.
“The Garda Reserve is a big part of our plan.”
Garda.ie lists the requirements for joining the reserves as follows:
Be aged at least 18 and no older than 59.
Be a national of European Member State, an EEA State, the UK or the Swiss Confederation.
Live in the State for a period of 1 year prior to date of application and have spent 4 of the last 8 years as a resident in the State. For a total requirement of 5 years of residency.
Be in good health with good vision.
Be of good character.
A Grade of not less than a D3 or O6 in 5 subjects at not lower than ordinary level in the Leaving Certificate.
A Level 5 Certificate or greater that is recognised with the National Framework of Qualifications or equivalent as determined by Quality and Qualifications Ireland.
Proficient in either or both Irish and English.
More details can be found at publicjobs.ie.
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What a devastating disaster. To destroy such an old established business like this. Hope ye can stay going and regroup. Nothing sacred anymore.
Ann
Maybe someone else nearby with a Catering Kitchen could allow her to use their kitchen on a quiet, or a shut shop, day? Esp’ if it has its own “Free Power”/Off-Grid Renewable supply (to keep overheads down – for both parties). A lot of places don’t open on Mondays, Tuesdays, & Wednesdays anymore. If she could still meet even half her clients’ orders that fit with the days she has kitchen access (for retention of freshness), it would give her a fighting chance to keep the business *in business* and ticking over while the Tradies are in the bakery unit restoring and renovating the place…. after the insurance finally inspects & processes whatever payment they intend.
Also – There should not be any water *still* pouring out into her shop unit. Would the Firefighters not have given her a hand there to find the external stopcock and turn off the mains supply to the store entirely.
Unless it’s coming from a loft or rooftop storage tank? But even then, it should quit eventually when it runs out of water . . . .unless, again, the mains outside is not turned off and is still supplying the tank.
We’ll keep the fingers crossed for them anyway.
Best of luck bouncing back
Hope they’ve got adequate insurance that will cover rebuilding and possibly loss of earnings. Even so, next year’s premium might be off the wall. Hate to see a decent family-run business like that destroyed. Not too many left anymore.
Is it possible that the fire could be caused by the ole reliable climate change claim ? Asking for an insurance friend of mine
1862 was a long time ago. Thought it was mostly spuds on the menu then
@The Hard Road: Is that what you thought? Read much?
@Jack Hayes: Comments section is full of w anchors.
@Jack Hayes: I stand corrected. I had thought there were lots of people subsisting on potatoes rather than cream cakes during that period of Irish history. Now I know better
@The Hard Road: Like the man in the orthopaedic shoes.
@The Hard Road: Everything was on the menu then, if you had the wherewithal to pay for it!
@The Hard Road: You are on the right track …-ish. Spuds were never the problem. Wholesale confiscation of all livestock, tillage crops, and grains, by Britain, as “Taxes” surplus to coin taxes and rents, were the problem. All the “tenant” farmer was left with to sustain themselves were usually a few spuds and other scarce bits. Potato crop failed the years of the Famine Genocide, AND Britain still continued to levy and escalate confiscation of all harvests and livestock.
But you would definitely be correct. Very few indigenous Irish would have had the option or opportunity to eat home made cakes, let alone *purchased* bakery goods from the City. Back then, the shop probably predominantly supplied indigenous Protestants who had favourable access to higher salaried professional occupations and lay jobs; and the non-indigenous, like Brits, who held all the Wealth (from Resource stripping).
That is not to say there wouldn’t have been a fair few indigenous Catholics who had reasonably well paid jobs and/or happened to have multiple teenage children capable of and succeeding in getting a lower paid City job who’s wages would then all go into the pot for the mother to run the house (and, buy a rare cake on a rare special occasion).
So it wasn’t wholly impossible for indigenous Irish Catholics to purchase a cake.
It was just far more probable the Protestant Privileged, and the foreign Resource Strippers, were the more common customer (possibly alongside tea shops and other commercial enterprises that didn’t have an in-house baker)
@Pink Freud: comprehensive and factual answer.
@Pink Freud: Sort of what we have now but with multinationals
That picture brought me back .Terrible news and places like this are very few nowadays. Some are intent on destruction and for what purpose? I hope they recover. I have a yearning for a jam doughnut now.
Ireland wants a franchise here. Greggs maybe
@Thesaltyurchin: But do we really, you have clearly have not tasted anything from Greggs.
@Michael Ward: Sarcasm. Apologies, it’s a hard one when read in context. But we do prefer our shop owners to run a Centra, our coffee to be Starbucks. Imagine it’s less work for officials to do, bigger employers, lower wages. If a costa goes bust it probably doesn’t even register a blip on their overall books. Ireland has never liked the SME (imo).
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