John Brady (Wicklow, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister and I broadly support what he has said, particularly in paying tribute to the members of the Defence Forces who have bravely done great service to this State with our overseas missions. There have been over 70,000 individual tours of duty carried out by members of the Defence Forces, which is a phenomenal record and something of which we should be very proud. It has built up the soft power that we as a small nation have created across the globe. It is something we should and can build on as an active neutral country. That is as opposed to any move towards being a militarily-aligned country. It is something I want to see further developed.

It should be said, nevertheless, that there are difficulties and the Minister is acutely aware of these, particularly when a representative body like the Representative Body of Commissioned Officers, RACO, has said quite recently that our obligations to the UN are at serious risk because of the recruitment and retention difficulties within the Defence Forces. They are jeopardising our involvement in some of these missions. Will the Minister comment on that? I know the commission report will be central to this matter and particularly retention issues. We are currently 1,000 members of the Defence Forces short of the establishment numbers. Will the Minister speak to the difficulties we are currently experiencing or whether the Minister sees any difficulties in meeting that mandate?

Following from that is the question of mandatory selection for some of the missions because of those difficulties with numbers. That in itself is creating difficulties for members of the Defence Forces who have just returned from overseas deployment. Due to the shortage of skilled or qualified personnel in different areas, members are being selected on a mandatory basis for deployment. That creates its own challenges in family and personal lives, as well as everything that goes with it.

I asked the Minister via a parliamentary question what records are kept about mandatory selection for deployment, along with appeals upheld or overturned. It was quite shocking that there is no centralised system of recording that information. It was indicated in the reply to the parliamentary question that a system would be put in place to record the information on how many appeals were taken by members of the Defence Forces on mandatory selection and whether the appeals were upheld or overturned. Will the Minister give us an update on that, because this has a major impact on both individuals and families?

I will also touch on the training mission to Mali. In his opening statement the Minister indicates it is due to end in September.