Just six frontline gardaí are likely to get pursuit training by the end of this year and it could be 2028 before significant numbers complete the course, an Oireachtas committee heard on Tuesday.
The director of training at the Garda College, Chief Supt Brian Sugrue, said a “very small” number of gardaí would be trained by the end of 2026.
“I expect probably a single, or maybe two courses, before the end of this year, with a wider roll-out in 2027,” he said, going on to clarify that it is “probably realistic” that just six gardaí would receive the training this year.
About 40 Garda instructors are expected to be trained to conduct pursuit training this year, with the first four instructors to be trained by November.
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The general secretary of the Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors (AGSI), Ronan Clogher, told the Oireachtas transport committee it is “highly unlikely” that any frontline members would receive the training before the end of the year.
AGSI, which represents the mid-level management of the Garda, and the Garda Representative Association (GRA) appeared before the committee on Tuesday, before an appearance by Garda management.
Both unions told the committee they had not been consulted with by management regarding any training for their members.
Garda driving instructors have been conducting specialist pursuit training with British officers at Devon and Cornwall Police during the summer, The Irish Times has previously reported.
It emerged that the Garda turned to the British police to plug the skills gap in the force after five teenagers in a BMW were killed in a wrong-way crash on the M9 in Co Kildare in early August as they tried to evade gardaí. The gardaí following the car did not pursue the vehicle as it travelled the wrong way along the motorway.
[ Gardaí start specialist training in UK for high-risk vehicle pursuitsOpens in new window ]
The crash on the M9 brought the issue to public attention, but the Garda unions and management had been lobbying for increased pursuit training and resources before the incident.
Garda Assistant Commissioner Denis Ferry, who is responsible for roads policing, told the committee that the Garda trainers have now completed two phases of this training, with the third phase to be completed by the end of the year.
Ferry said the force is “seeking further opportunities” to train additional Garda driving instructors. He noted, however, pursuit training was not the answer to the high-profile and “deeply concerning” contraflow driving incidents in the UK and Ireland.
Clogher earlier told the committee the small number of instructors trained so far meant it was unlikely that “big numbers” of frontline gardaí would be trained in 2027.
He said it would be 2028 or 2029 before significant numbers of the force would be trained to pursue cars.
Clogher said “we haven’t been informed of what this training is”, adding: “Some forces in the UK do not chase on motorways. They will not do it. They will abandon [chases] and they will pull [out].”
Clogher also said official Garda policy on pursuits “gives absolutely no direction on how to conduct a pursuit”. The policy said gardaí should only pursue vehicles “where safe to do so” but pursuits, by their very nature, were unsafe, he said.
Labour Party TD Alan Kelly said it was “laughable” that Garda management had put in place a pursuit policy despite no gardaí having been trained to conduct pursuits.
The committee also heard calls from Ronan Slevin, general secretary of the Garda Representative Association (GRA), for the posting of videos showing wrong-way driving to be made illegal.
The GRA called for increased protections and indemnity for members of the force and suggested that gardaí should have a separate driving licence for their work from their own private licence.
In Clogher’s opening statement, he said AGSI is of the view that “the greatest obstacle to tackling the problems surrounding Garda pursuits is a cultural issue surrounding risk aversion” within the force.
“The failure to accept any level of corporate risk surrounding this issue will ultimately create a further digression in the organisation’s ability to effectively tackle this issue.”
