![\"Operation](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/removal-of-50-50-negatively-impacted-catholic-recruits-to-psni-says-hargey.jpg\")
Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) Chief Constable Jon Boutcher (Liam McBurney\/PA)<\/p>\nRemoval of 50:50 has had a \u201cnegative impact\u201d on the number of Catholic recruits in policing, a Sinn F\u00e9in spokesperson has said.<\/p>\n
Deirdre Hargey MLA, who sits on the policing board for the party, said the drop in recruits from nationalist backgrounds is \u201cnot down to Sinn F\u00e9in\u201d\u00a0 ahead of a meeting with the forces’ Chief Constable Jon Boutcher.<\/p>\n
Recruitment figures released by the PSNI last week showed that the percentage of new Catholic applicants to join the force was at its lowest in more than a decade.<\/p>\n
Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) Chief Constable Jon Boutcher (Liam McBurney\/PA)<\/p>\n
Police said more than 4,000 people had applied for their latest student officer recruitment campaign, with 65.6 per cent from a Protestant background, 26.7 per cent from a Catholic background and 7.7 per cent undetermined.<\/p>\n
Between 2001 and 2011, there was a 50:50 recruitment initiative which meant there was one Catholic recruit for every one person from a Protestant or other background.<\/p>\n
DUP leader Gavin Robinson said any return to the policy would be a mistake.<\/p>\n
Speaking at Stormont Parliament buildings on Monday, Ms Hargey said the drop in numbers shows that the removal of 50:50 \u201chas had a negative impact\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s something that we\u2019ll be directly addressing with the Chief Constable today, and raising with him in terms of looking at 50:50 recruitment again to try and reverse that trend,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
She added: \u201cIt worked back in 2001 to 2011 where (we saw) an increase from 8 per cent to over 30 per cent and we believe that we need to get back to that process of work going forward.\u201d<\/p>\n
Asked if in their meeting Sinn F\u00e9in would be calling on Mr Boucher to reinstate 50:50, Ms Hargey said: \u201cWe think that that is a policy, yes, that needs (sic) because it did have an impact when it was introduced the last time.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ms Hargey highlighted Troubles legacy cases and more recently the investigation into the death of Belfast schoolboy Noah Donohoe as instances that have \u201ca damage and impact on policing if it\u2019s not done in the right way\u201d.<\/p>\n
![\"50:50](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/1771875918_497_removal-of-50-50-negatively-impacted-catholic-recruits-to-psni-says-hargey.jpg\")
Sinn F\u00e9in MLA Deirdre Hargey speaking to the media at Parliament Buildings at Stormont in Belfast ahead of a meeting with PSNI Chief Constable Jon Boutcher (Liam McBurney\/PA)<\/p>\n
Asked about initiatives taken by the police to try and improve relations with the nationalist community such as changing operational guidance on the removal of paramilitary flags, Ms Hargey said there is still \u201cconcern and barriers in order to command that support\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you speak to young people in nationalist\/republican communities, the issues around legacy, the issues of not seeing visible policing on the ground within their community to respond to their needs, and also a culture are barriers that they\u2019re highlighting,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want to work with the police in terms of removing those barriers, but they need to be doing more to understand the community, and this is something the police have said themselves previously, that they do need to understand the community, and in order to do that, we believe that more direct and consistent engagement needs to be done.\u201d<\/p>\n
Asked how Sinn F\u00e9in have tried to engage with the nationalist community on policing, Ms Hargey said, \u201cwe have been doing that\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been very proactive at a Belfast level in terms of challenging sectarian manifestations, even from within my own community, and communities across the city as well,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd we have had regular engagements with the PSNI and with other statutory agencies to deal with those issues.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut I think it is clear, I mean, the fact that we\u2019re not seeing recruits, that\u2019s not down to Sinn F\u00e9in, that\u2019s down to\u2026 that there are clear barriers there for members of the community that they don\u2019t feel at this point, that policing as a career for them, we need to understand what those barriers are.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Removal of 50:50 has had a \u201cnegative impact\u201d on the number of Catholic recruits in policing, a Sinn…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":313488,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,43],"class_list":{"0":"post-313487","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ireland","8":"tag-ie","9":"tag-ireland","10":"tag-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313487","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=313487"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313487\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/313488"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=313487"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=313487"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=313487"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}