Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)

Yes, six times more compared with the previous year in which we started recruitment post-Covid. We are now essentially back to where we were pre-Covid. We need to go higher. We need to hire 1,000 Gardaí per year to be able to respond to and deal with the challenges we have with retention and retirements. While we do not have the final figures for resignations or retirements this year, they will not be higher than last year’s figures. They may perhaps be lower. Obviously, we will have to wait until the end of the year to see.