{"id":206906,"date":"2025-06-23T05:31:10","date_gmt":"2025-06-23T05:31:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/206906\/"},"modified":"2025-06-23T05:31:10","modified_gmt":"2025-06-23T05:31:10","slug":"psni-catholic-recruitment-falls-to-new-low-at-just-17-last-year-the-irish-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/206906\/","title":{"rendered":"PSNI Catholic recruitment falls to new low, at just 17% last year \u2013 The Irish News"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Catholic recruitment to the PSNI fell drastically last year, with 2024 marking a record low for the force which replaced the RUC.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Catholic representation among new recruits has been declining in recent years but it can now be revealed that the pattern is getting worse.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">A Freedom of Information request obtained by The Irish News shows that Catholics made up 26.8% of new recruits in 2021 and 21.8% of recruits in 2022.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">This was followed by an increase in 2023 to 25.6% of new recruits.<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"c-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.irishnews.com\/news\/ireland\/sectarian-threat-calling-for-taigs-to-be-crucified-displayed-on-loyalist-bonfire-3N6JUVBUOZDD3F5S6TETUKWUYE\/\" aria-hidden=\"true\" tabindex=\"-1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img decoding=\"async\" data-chromatic=\"ignore\" alt=\"Sectarian threat calling for &#x2018;taigs&#x2019; to be &#x2018;crucified&#x2019; displayed on loyalist bonfire\" class=\"c-image\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/AVOOTNNII5HFDBOIVZDOGQP6DA.jpeg\"  width=\"800\" height=\"450\"\/><\/a><a class=\"c-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.irishnews.com\/news\/northern-ireland\/a-majority-is-a-majority-leo-varadkar-says-50-plus-one-in-border-poll-enough-for-reunification-but-need-to-aspire-for-more-IE4W5T45JZEGLE3WDQC3SL67EU\/\" aria-hidden=\"true\" tabindex=\"-1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img decoding=\"async\" data-chromatic=\"ignore\" alt=\"&#x2018;A majority is a majority&#x2019; &#x2013; Leo Varadkar says &#x2018;50 plus one&#x2019; in border poll &#x2018;enough&#x2019; for reunification but need to aspire for more \" class=\"c-image\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/1750656670_611_MESUY45W4FEONNLNQKWSLRWLVU.JPG\"  width=\"800\" height=\"450\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">However, the figure dipped by 8.5 percentage points in 2024 with Catholics making up just 17.1% of new hires.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">In 1999, the Patten Report found that just 8.3% of the RUC was made up of Catholics.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">This figure increased after the former police force was disbanded and replaced by the PSNI in 2001 and a 50:50 hiring policy was introduced.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">The initiative meant that the PSNI had to recruit a Catholic officer for every Protestant that they recruited &#8211; and led to a surge in Catholic recruitment.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">However, the 50:50 scheme was disbanded in 2011 following calls from unionist politicians.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">The high levels of Catholic recruitment during this era are now reflected on the streets as the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishnews.com\/news\/northern-ireland\/psni-officers-told-not-to-intervene-during-last-weeks-race-riots-unless-theres-a-threat-to-life-5HY2TX6RK5DCHIKXXNEXR5J6SU\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishnews.com\/news\/northern-ireland\/psni-officers-told-not-to-intervene-during-last-weeks-race-riots-unless-theres-a-threat-to-life-5HY2TX6RK5DCHIKXXNEXR5J6SU\/\">PSNI<\/a> is currently made up of around 32% Catholic officers.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">However, the current decline in Catholic recruitment will bring concerns that this percentage will fall as the initial PSNI joiners start to retire.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">The recruitment trend is mirrored by those openly identifying as nationalist within the force.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Just 3.8% of new recruits in 2024 openly identified at nationalist &#8211; the lowest number since 2020.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishnews.com\/news\/northern-ireland\/just-one-in-five-psni-new-recruits-are-catholic-EVRA6ZV7FRBFFP6V6KS2LEJIIU\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishnews.com\/news\/northern-ireland\/just-one-in-five-psni-new-recruits-are-catholic-EVRA6ZV7FRBFFP6V6KS2LEJIIU\/\">Last month, The Irish News revealed that just over one in every five police officers recruited in Northern Ireland in the past five years is from a Catholic background with just 6.8% openly nationalist.<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">The PSNI recruited 1,377 officers in total between 2020 and the end of March 2025.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Of the officers recruited during that period, 76.3% came from a Protestant background, while just 21.6% from a Catholic background.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">The PSNI has been contacted for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Catholic recruitment to the PSNI fell drastically last year, with 2024 marking a record low for the force&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":206907,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5011],"tags":[1144,83135,529,83136,16,7913,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-206906","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-northern-ireland","8":"tag-northern-ireland","9":"tag-pa2024","10":"tag-police","11":"tag-psni-graduation-ceremony","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-ulster","14":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114731043347864018","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206906","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=206906"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206906\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/206907"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=206906"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=206906"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=206906"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}