Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The Commission on the Defence Forces was established on foot of a commitment in the programme for Government, and its report was published on 9 February 2022. The commission has undertaken a significant body of work, encompassing wide-ranging terms of reference. It recommends significant changes for the Defence Forces and defence provision in Ireland. It covers high-level Defence Forces structures, defence capabilities, organisation, culture and human resources, the Reserve Defence Force and funding.

Given the significant recommendations contained in the report, detailed consideration of these recommendations was undertaken over a period of five months by the Department of Defence and the Defence Forces. Following this engagement, a high-level action plan and a memorandum for Government were brought to Government in July last year. This involved the approval of a move to level of ambition 2, LOA2, as set out in the capability framework devised by the Commission on the Defence Forces. This will result in the defence budget rising from €1.1 billion to €1.5 billion, in 2022 prices, by 2028, the largest increase in defence funding in the history of the State. This will allow for the required substantial transformation and investment in recruitment and equipment that were identified by the commission. The budget for 2023 included an increase of €67 million over the 2022 budget for defence. This includes an almost 25% increase in capital funding and demonstrates the Government’s strong commitment to support the transformation of the Defence Forces into a modern, agile military force capable of responding to increasingly complex security threats.

The move to LOA2 will require an additional 2,000 personnel, civil and military, over and above the current establishment of 9,500. Work has already commenced on this with the recently announced recruitment campaign, Be More. Some specific initiatives include the immediate commencement of planning for military radar capabilities, including primary radar and the establishment of an office of Reserve affairs with the priority objective of developing a regeneration plan for the Reserve Defence Force.

The high-level action plan set out initial implementation and oversight structures. An implementation oversight group has been established which met for the first time on 3 October. Subsequently, Ms Julie Sinnamon was appointed as the independent chair of the implementation oversight group with a second meeting taking place on 17 November and a third meeting taking place on 27 January. A high-level steering board has been established, chaired by the Secretary General of the Department of the Taoiseach, to oversee the implementation.

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