One in a hundred Embarrassment as astonishingly low pass rate for controversial Garda Reserve force is revealed

FEWER than one in 100 people who applied to join the controversial Garda Reserve last year were accepted into the part- time force. Just 73 of the 7,358 applicants for Garda Reserve jobs were successful, according to the annual report of the Com- mission for Public Service Appointments.

The low success rate is a slap in the face for Justice Minister Michael McDowell, who has championed the reserve force in the face of vehement opposition from rank and file Gardaí. The Minister had said that there was unanimous agreement in the UK that reservists make the job of full-time police easier. Both the Garda Representative Association and the Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors had threatened not to co- operate with the force, whose purpose is to provide support to full-time members and strengthen links between the Gardaí and communities. However, their opposition melted last November after the Government warned them that they would not receive any pay increases due under the National Pay Agreement, Towards 2016, unless they agreed to work with the Reserve. As a result, the AGSI voted unanimously in mid- November to co-operate with the new force, while the GRA followed suit later that month.

Minister McDowell announced in February that Garda superintendents would be involved in recruiting Garda Reserve candidates because the existing recruitment system was too complicated and too slow. He asked Garda Commissioner Noel Conroy to tell superintendents to place advertisements in local papers seeking suitable candidates from the community.

The reservists' training, which began last September, involves a two- day induction course, 56 hours of weekend and evening training and a weekend spent at the Garda College in Templemore or a regional centre. The final part of the training involves a 40-hour probationary period over 10 weeks at a station. The first 37 reservists, who will work a minimum of four hours a week, appeared in Garda stations in Dublin, Cork and Galway last November for training.

However, if recruitment continues at the current rate, it will be seven years before the Minister's target of 1,500 reservists is met - a goal he had intended to be reached no later than this summer. Reservists, who can be aged up to 60, have the powers of arrest for road traffic, public order, and theft and fraud offences.

Applicants who tried for the regular Garda Síochána had a greater chance of succeeding than those who had applied to be reservists. A total 1,120 people were accepted as trainee Gardaí out of 9,100 applications last year.