Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

There was an extension in service limits for privates and corporals who were recruited to the Permanent Defence Force after 1 January 1994 to remain in service until up to 50 years of age, subject to them meeting certain criteria, including medical fitness. That agreement was done. In October 2022, the Minister for Defence secured an interim arrangement from the then Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, as I said, allowing for the retention in service of sergeants in the Permanent Defence Force who were due to be retired on age grounds until the end of 2024. This means that those sergeants who were recruited after 1 January 1994 and would be due to retire on the basis of the mandatory retirement age this year and next will not be required to do so until the end of 2024.

The recommendations in the review of barriers to extended participation in the Permanent Defence Force, which relate to non-commissioned officer ranks and commissioned officers, will be considered in the forum of an interdepartmental work group which the Department of Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform has established to consider mandatory retirement ages and service limits for public service groups which have fast-accrual occupations. I am working on this issue as we speak. That was the position before I took office. I will take the matter out of the interdepartmental and bring it back to a defence-specific approach because of the crisis in recruitment within the Defence Forces. Retention is a key element of that.