Paul Kehoe (Wexford, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

-----we will come back to 9,500 personnel, but I can give a commitment that everything will be done by military management, the Department's management and my office to ensure we come back to that number. We are competing with a buoyant economy. One can see from the last 20 or 30 years that when the Defence Forces are competing with a buoyant economy, their numbers fall. In 2011, the Defence Forces was the only organisation that had ongoing recruitment, at a time when Members of the Opposition said there should not be ongoing recruitment. However, there was ongoing recruitment during those lean, difficult years.