Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for those questions. I have a final question. The briefing from the Department indicates that the strength of the Permanent Defence Force at the end of March was 8,847 whole-time equivalents.

The witnesses have remarked to us that in reality the strength is nearly 1,000 lower than that, taking into consideration duties and the training of others. I ask them to go back over the figures to which they alluded in their earlier contribution.