Paul Kehoe (Wexford, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I absolutely recognise that there are huge numbers leaving the Defence Forces. I am not going to dispute that. We have been competing through a very buoyant economy over the past two or three years. This has always been the case. When the economy was buoyant back in the early 2000s, there were people leaving the Defence Forces and going into the private sector. I outlined to the Deputy the work I am doing with civil and military management on the Public Service Pay Commission. There is and has been pay restoration across the board from very senior level right down to the more junior ranks. One of the issues I addressed when I came in was the pre-2013 and post-2013 entrants. We brought that back up and gave them a 20% increase, bringing their pay back up to €27,000. That was a €5,000 increase for a new entrant coming in as a three-star private.

We have given military management a budget for 9,500 personnel. There is a full budget there for all of that. It is not up to me to do the recruitment. I and the Department will assist but the Defence Forces and military management have taken responsibility for recruitment into the Defence Forces. That is within their space. We provide the budget and they do the recruitment. There is a recruitment campaign open at the moment which is closing next Sunday night. There was recruitment in September and October of last year as well.

There were gaps within the junior ranks of the officer corps. Under my instruction in 2016, the number of cadets was increased to 100 between the Air Corps, the Naval Service and the Army. The biggest cadet classes in the history of the Defence Forces are going through at this moment. On Monday of this week, I met with cadets commissioned from the ranks. It is the first time in ten years we have a cadet class being commissioned from the ranks. There are 23 of them being brought forward. That is something I am very proud of and have worked on. It is very important that we give the junior ranks an opportunity to become officers of the Defence Forces. There are outstanding members and enlisted personnel who should be given the same opportunity as anybody else to progress through the organisation.

The Deputy spoke about the University of Limerick study and said there were health and safety concerns. I have been assured by the chief of staff that if there are health and safety concerns, I will know about them. When there were health and safety concerns in the Air Corps, I invited the committee to visit. Deputy Smith and the Chairman brought a number of people to the Air Corps. I think they were very impressed by the new safety regime that has been put in place in the last years. If the Deputy is aware of health and safety issues within the Defence Forces-----