It is “madness” for Gardaí to lower their fitness standards, a journalist who has completed the former Garda fitness test has said. 

In a bid to boost recruitment into the force, An Garda Síochána have announced that it will relax the requirements for its entry-level fitness test.

Prospective candidates no longer have to complete sit ups or press ups. 

In addition, the bleep test - in which candidates have to run between two cones 20 metres apart in increasingly shorter periods of time - has been made easier. 

Irish Independent journalist JJ Clarke completed the original fitness test and described it as “tricky but not impossible”. 

“I practised the bleep test once with a friend at the local GAA club,” he told The Pat Kenny Show. 

“Then I did the pushups and sit ups every single day of that 10 days before the test.” 

JJ could do 25 pushups with training but had to practise sit ups beforehand.  

“The sit ups were a little more challenging because it’s timed, so it’s 90 seconds to get 35,” he said. 

“Or I think it might be 60 seconds, so it’s a bit more challenging to get 35 in that time space.

“It’s tricky, but not impossible.” 

Gardaí policing the roads of Kildare. Photo: Eamonn Farrell/© RollingNews.ie

In total, there were 11 other journalists taking the test with him - most of whom struggled.  

“I was doing it with one other member of the Garda press team and he was 52-years-old,” JJ said. 

“We all started out around Level 5 - which I’d say is around the 800 metre mark of the running up and back between two cones 20 metres apart. 

“Basically, everyone bar me and this guy dropped off. 

“The beeps got faster and faster until it go to about Level 8 and I started to think, ‘This is hard.’” 

JJ gave up just before Level 9, but was happy knowing he had passed.”

“I was like, ‘Ah, I did pretty good’ and I looked up and the 52-year-old guy, he’s a sergeant, kept going till 11,” he said. 

“When people make excuses that it’s too hard, what are they talking about?”

How hard is the Garda fitness test?

With 1 in 6 failing the physical pre-entry exam, @OCallaghanJim took the test to see how demanding it is. Jim suggests a review of the fitness test and removal of upper age limit of 35 as solutions to address recruitment issues

Did Jim pass? pic.twitter.com/Y85xiPSG4H

— Fianna Fáil (@fiannafailparty) March 8, 2023

Although most of his colleagues failed to complete the test, JJ believes An Garda Síochána should not apologies for demanding candidates are physically fit. 

“A surgeon requires precision and coordination,” he said. 

“An endurance runner requires cardiovascular fitness and you need core strength and cardiovascular fitness for a demanding job like being a Garda. 

“So, I was really surprised because you need that. 

“Think about if someone snatches a purse and you’re legging it down Grafton Street, you need someone fast enough to catch the purse.” 

'Coach them up to that fitness level'

JJ added that extra Gardaí will be “no consolation” to a robbed shopkeep if the criminal gets away because the local Guard is not able to chase them down. 

“You’re going to bring back in that sort of chlichéd image of the police officer with the doughnut - the Chief Wiggum - if you say the gate’s open,” he said. 

“We don’t want to say that it’s quality or quantity; we want to say we can get more people in but we can coach them up to that fitness level. 

“Don’t drop standards completely - that’s madness.” 

The Programme for Government, Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael promised to fund the recruitment of “at least” 5,000 new Gardaí over the current Dáil term.

Main image: Gardaí in Cork. Picture by: AG News/Alamy Live News