Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

There are a number of issues. The example of the Air Corps is the one of which most people are aware. There are problems in ordnance, engineering and other sections of the Defence Forces which are losing personnel. The Defence Forces as a whole are under-strength. The Reserve is another example and is well below its intended strength. Even with the current recruitment and the one announced last week it is just running to stand still. Part of the Secretary General's job, and our job as well, is to make the Defence Forces attractive to encourage people to join it. Concerns about pay and conditions, stories about soldiers sleeping in cars and sailors sleeping on board because they cannot afford onshore accommodation make it unattractive. The new fleet and new equipment help to make it attractive. Laudable overseas operations such as the Naval Service's involvement in Operation Pontus encourage people as does all the other aid to the civil power mentioned in the Department's strategy document.

The disputes with PDFORRA or RACO are also a contributing factor. Representative organisations feel they cannot fully engage and are not properly recognised. There has not been proper heed of the European Court of Justice judgment on recognition of police force and army representative associations akin to trade union status. We still await any significant movement on that. That makes it attractive because people joining know they will have some protections for their pay and conditions when not on active service.

In the past year we saw some major movement in the restoration or at least some recognition of allowances for members of An Garda Síochána and for nurses. The same type of movement has not happened for those in the Defence Forces; that needs to be accelerated.

Looking from the outside in, part of the problem with the Air Corps is that pilots are trained on the wrong planes. If they are trained to be Cessna pilots, of course they are going to be attracted to the private sector. If they were trained on purely military equipment, their skills would not be as flexible. Considering we have very little use for a Cessna, why is our Air Corps training on one and using other equipment which does not have a military function in the way the likes of helicopters would?

Do the witnesses expect us to be further ahead at the end of the next recruitment drive? This week, PDFORRA said that up to 3,000 members have retired early in the last five years. That is a huge figure. In the recruitment process, if those who have expressed an interest are whittled down to several hundred as is envisaged, there is going to be a bigger problem for us in the years to come.