Just six gardaí set to complete pursuit driving training by the end of the year Recent figures show that recorded incidents of wrong way driving were up 32% year on year Tue, 15 Sep, 2026 – 20:00Liz Dunphy
Just six gardaí are expected to be trained in pursuit driving by the end of the year despite the “sinister” increase in people driving cars the wrong way down motorways to evade officers.
No gardaí are currently trained in pursuit driving, the Oireachtas Justice Committee heard from both the Garda Representative Association and the Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors.
Following the M9 crash in August, justice minister Jim O’Callaghan and Garda Commissioner Justin Kelly said pursuit training would begin this year.
But that horror crash, in which five teenagers died after driving a car the wrong way down a motorway, badly injuring a family driving to Dublin Airport, “could happen again in the morning” as no material changes have been made since, Ronan Slevin of the Garda Representative Association said.
Although training is underway with British police forces to train gardaí in pursuit driving, it is expected that just six officers will have received that training by the end of the year, garda management said.
Recent figures show that recorded incidents of wrong way driving were up 32% year on year, with seven incidents in a two-week period at the start of August alone, Mr Slevin said.
“It is our understanding that these numbers may be even more chilling,” he said.
But thousands of gardaí are untrained to even turn on blue lights and siren when driving, Mr Slevin said.
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Ronan Clogher, General Secretary of the AGSI said that incidents of contra flow driving on the M50 and surrounding motorway routes are now regular.
“The recent development of certain individuals driving contra flow or deliberating seeking garda pursuits for the purpose of generating social media likes is a most sinister and frightening development,” he said.
But gardaí who do pursue a fleeing criminal are “thrown to the wolves” and abandoned by garda management if something goes wrong, Mr Clogher said.
Gardaí need indemnity in these situations, he added.
They also require a separate driving licence for work so that if an incident occurs in the course of duty, that does not impact on their personal driving licence and insurance policy, he said.
Assistant Commissioner Denis Ferry denied that any gardaí are abandoned and “thrown to the wolves” if they pursue a suspect and said that supports for gardaí are in place.
Although nine gardaí are currently before the courts for alleged driving offences while at work, not one garda was suspended from work following a pursuit-related alleged offence, he said.
Training underway
Although currently, no gardaí are trained in pursuit driving, Chief Superintendent Brian Sugrue said that training is underway with a UK police force.
Four gardaí should be qualified to teach a level of pursuit driving by the middle of November, with another 11 almost qualified to train gardaí in pursuit driving.
So although the capacity to train gardaí in higher level driving skills in 2026 is “negligible”, this training will be rolled out “at scale” through 2027 and into 2028, with a target of 40 garda driving instructors trained to this level next year, Chief Supt Sugrue said.
He said he expected six gardaí to be trained in pursuit driving this year.
Both the AGSI and GRA said that with current garda shortages and the ongoing demands of policing the EU presidency, they did not see how significant pursuit training could be rolled out, even when enough garda driving trainers were qualified to teach pursuit driving.
Assistant Commissioner Ferry said that approximately 200 gardaí are already specially trained to stop vehicles. And more than 2,000 gardaí are trained to deploy stingers — spiked devices placed across a road to deflate the tyres of a fleeing vehicle.
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Gardaí must have authorisation from one of four control rooms across the country before pursuing a vehicle, with almost 94% of these staff specially trained in authorising pursuits. And in 80% of incidents, pursuit authorisations are approved, he said.
The Garda Commissioner is working to secure a higher standard of protections for garda drivers under the law and has already sent recommendations for changes to the current legislation to the Department of Justice so that trained gardaí could have exemptions and higher thresholds applied when driving, he said.
Although gardaí are not currently trained in pursuit driving, some 4,500 are trained for response driving, which permits them to drive under blue lights and sirens and these gardaí can be authorised to engage in pursuit, Chief Supt Sugrue said.
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