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THE PRESIDENT OF a garda group has spoken about “frustrations” with garda management and believes that frontline gardaí may not be fully trained in pursuit driving until 2028.

Niall Hodgins, who is the elected head of the Garda Representative Association (GRA), said that the first they heard of pursuit training was a month ago.

He said that it was his understanding that instructors were to begin training towards the end of the year, but he added this may have changed since the M9 crash.

The GRA and their colleagues in the Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors have been calling vociferously for drivers to be trained in pursuit techniques with multiple campaigns.

There is likely to be some attempt across 2027 to get operational units trained but Hodgins believes there will be a real struggle to achieve this goal.

“The bottom line is, my own opinion is, that nothing will roll out fully until 2028,” Hodgins said.

The GRA President said that meetings he and other officials have had with garda management have caused significant “frustrations”. He said in regard to the rapidness of the roll-out that occasionally “a week can feel more like six months in An Garda Síochána”.

“Our conversations with garda management [about this topic] have been obdurate, obfuscative and obstructive – it is important to shine a light on this,” he added.

It is understood that behind the scenes at senior levels in An Garda Síochána that plans were beginning to be looked at in regard to training.

As revealed this morning by The Journal there had been liaisons with foreign police forces in Britain and with the PSNI in Northern Ireland in efforts to come up with a strategy.

It is our understanding that some examination has been underway by some garda instructors in how to deliver the training to the Irish garda force of 14,000 members.

Multiple garda sources said yesterday that the issue was one of the short time available to train instructors in the force and that this was unlikely to be achieved in a short space of time. The plan was that they would then return and give the training to operational or frontline units.

In reporting today in a number of publications it was stated that gardaí were being trained by Devon and Cornwall Police – we sought clarity on this issue.

When pressed for comment the garda press office said that gardaí had been liaising with Devon and Cornwall Police in regard to this and the UK’s version of Templemore Garda College.

“As part of planning to introduce vehicle pursuit training, in 2025 Garda management began liaising with an expert training provider, Devon and Cornwall Police, and the UK College of Policing, to provide training to Garda College Driver Training Instructors on vehicle pursuit training.

“Garda College driving instructors attended training at the Devon and Cornwall Police in early 2025 to observe their training and determined that it was in line with the needs of the training requirement of An Garda Síochána, and commenced the first of three stages of training,” the garda statement said.

The spokesman further stated that in 2026, driver training experts from the Devon and Cornwall Police attended the Garda College and “continued the training of Garda College Driver Training Instructors, which is currently ongoing”.

“This train-the-trainer approach will allow the Garda College to become self-sufficient to train further Garda instructors and enable training of Gardaí to commence before the end of 2026,” the garda organisation claimed.

We contacted Devon and Cornwall Police who in a statement said: “Devon and Cornwall Police has recently liaised with An Garda Síochána in relation to Initial Phase Pursuit (IPP) training.”

There was no indication either by Devon and Cornwall Police or An Garda Síochána that these garda instructors are currently in Britain receiving training.

Our enquiries today with sources here and abroad established that this liaison was at the very initial stages of training. Essentially drawing up a curriculum for instructors.

One source with knowledge of the situation said that the instructors are “either being trained or reviewing potential training, but that will also require review before implementation”.

Sources have also said that there will have to be a study of how long it could take. One source said that the model being examined by gardaí could be thought to qualified drivers within one week.

We also approached the British College of Policing and put it to them that An Garda Síochána had been in touch with it about training. A spokesperson said that they were examining our query.

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