David Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I will be quite brief. I note that the PDF strength is also dropping from 8,659 in 2019 to 8,468 in 2021, which would be a concern. The 2022 Estimate is lower than the 2021 outturn for allowances. Could the Minister comment on why that is the case? Is it because of the reduced numbers in the PDF? Could he provide a breakdown on the PDF strength as well between the Army, the Air Corps and the Naval Service?

We know that pay and allowances are an issue in the Defence Forces. Hopefully, that can be addressed in order to bolster retention. Because of their fantastic training and skill set a lot of people are being headhunted by the private sector.

On the RDF side of it, could the Minister give a breakdown between the Army Reserve and Naval Reserve pay, which is given as one figure, €1,918,000. Could he comment on the allowances? What are they for? Has any thought been given to bringing back the gratuity that was there in the past for the Army Reserve, as it was?

If somebody put in so many hours per year, he or she got a gratuity at the end of the year, which encouraged people to show up for training and so on. Again, the numbers there are dropping dramatically.