Questions raised over garda pursuit training timeline
By Cillian Sherlock, Press Association
Questions have been raised over the capacity to deliver Garda pursuit training this year.
On Monday, Minister for Justice Jim O’Callaghan said Commissioner Justin Kelly had committed to introducing pursuit training for gardaí, to begin by the end of 2026.
The announcement followed a horrific crash on Sunday in which five teenagers died after the stolen car in which they were travelling the wrong way down a motorway collided head-on with another vehicle.
The teenagers have been named locally as Joe Carthy, Jack Kennedy, Alex McCarthy, Jeremy O’Brien, and Kamil Pustkowski.
Four relatives, three women and a child, in the other car were injured in the crash on the M9 motorway in Co Kildare.
It came a week after nine people were injured in a separate head-on collision on the M50 in Dublin with a car travelling in the wrong direction on the motorway.
O’Callaghan said he had spoken to Commissioner Kelly and pledged that gardaí “will have whatever resources they require from Government in order to respond to this threat to public safety”, including pursuit training starting this year.
However, the Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors (AGSI) has questioned this timeframe given policing commitments in the upcoming months.
AGSI Deputy General Secretary Kevin Bolger welcomed the commitment but said: “It may start and we fully support them and we will work with them in getting this done – but I would question how much can be delivered in in that period of time.”
He added: “The reality of it is we’re running (an EU) presidency at the moment, the latter half of this year is jam-packed with a visit from the US president, there’s an EPC meeting which is a lot of world leaders coming in November.
“So that’s September and November kind of in under pressure.
“There’s a lot of constant resourcing requirements in relation to policing as it is.”
Bolger told RTÉ’s Morning Ireland that pursuit training and protections for gardaí had been raised at the association’s conference in April.
“We were given assurances – but here we are in the midst of another tragedy where the promises are still coming, and we’re not seeing any tangible actions.
“We aren’t saying stuff isn’t happening in the background but there needs to be an expedited response to this because things aren’t getting better and this was flagged at the time.”
Bolger said the pursuit training should be given to multiple people in each area.
He said the response should start with “fully resourcing” the Roads Policing Unit, which he said was currently “depleted”.
