Paul Kehoe (Wexford, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Given the desire to return the number of personnel to 9,500, I cannot say on 1 January of any given year exactly how many personnel will retire between that date and the end of December of that year but we try to estimate the number who will leave or be recruited. We do not say we will keep the number down in any year to make a saving. I do not want that to go out from this meeting. The Department and the officials in the Defence Forces look at an average number of people leaving year on year. We will continue to keep this in mind in trying to measure exactly how many people will be leaving.