Seán Ó Fearghaíl (Kildare South, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

We are all conscious of the pressures in various Departments because of staffing constraints. I am thinking, in particular, of the difficulties in the Department of Social Protection, for example. In the Defence Forces there are 9,500 personnel. On staffing, it strikes me as being considerable that in the Department of Defence there are 352 full-time equivalents. How does this figure compare with those for other Departments? We have been given the figures back to 2012, but has there been a significant decrease in the number of civil servants in the Department in recent years?