IMMIGRANTS will not need to speak or learn the Irish language in order to become gardai under new proposals being considered by the Department of Justice.

Making garda recruitment easier for immigrants is part of a ¤330m plan to hire up to 2,000 extra officers. The recruitment drive, which will involve taking on 1,100 gardai a year over the next three years, was announced by Michael McDowell, the minister for justice, last Thursday.

The department is stressing that the proposal to drop the Irish language requirement does not mean an abolition of the rule for everybody. Only immigrants would be exempt.

“The minister is in consultation with Noel Conroy, the garda commissioner, and a decision will be made in a few weeks,” the department said.

Groups representing migrant workers say current entry requirements to the gardai make it impossible for immigrants to join. Educational requirements include a grade not lower than D in Irish at ordinary level Leaving Certificate standard, or a grade not lower than C at foundation level in Irish in the established Leaving Certificate or Leaving Certificate Vocational Programme.

Bobby Gilmore, the chairman of the Migrants’ Information Centre in Dublin, said: “We will be writing to the minister this week in support of these proposals. There is a need for immigrants to be members of the garda and some sacrifices have to be made to enable this.”

The new rules could also allow for more job-transferring between the PSNI and garda. The Patten report into policing in Northern Ireland, published in 1999, recommended cross-border co-operation between the two forces. A relaxation of the language rule would make it easier for PSNI officers to take up positions in the republic.

Defenders of the Irish language are opposed to the proposal, however, because they believe it undermines the importance of its usage in everyday conversation.

Conradh na Gaeilge, the Irish language lobby group, has criticised the proposals and described McDowell’s plan as “a step backwards”.

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