A new recruitment campaign for An Garda Síochána (the Irish police) has been announced, which particularly encourages applications from migrant and ethnic minority candidates. Statistics, albeit incomplete, from the last recruitment drive in 2019 suggest that 9% of applicants then were from minority backgrounds, which was a significant increase from only 2.3% in 2014. Although the number of such recruits is increasing, ethnic minority groups remain underrepresented within Irish police forces: in 2017, only 63 of 13 376 Gardaí (police officers) came from non-Irish backgrounds, according to data from the Garda Representative Association (GRA). The same data shows that there is currently no member with African or Caribbean origin.  

A key obstacle to increasing ethnic minority representation in the police forces in Ireland is age limit, with many of those expressing an interest in joining the forces being over the cut-off age of 35. Another obstacle is legal status: those with precarious immigration status or residing in the country on a time limited visa cannot apply. A more significant barrier, however, is the common practice by police officers of ethnic profiling - mostly of young men. These practices are straining trust in the police on the part of those young men who might otherwise be interested in applying.  

The Gardaí has teamed up with the Immigrant Council of Ireland to spread the word via information sessions on joining the police for people of minority backgrounds. Both in-person and online events are planned across Ireland. Read more on this here.