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

I thank the Chief of Staff and welcome him and his colleagues here. I thank the Chief of Staff for a very good presentation. It was a positive and far-seeing presentation.

Many of the questions I was to ask have been asked and I will not repeat them. I want to ask the Chief of Staff about the issue of diversity and inclusion. As we speak, the action plan against racism is being launched. Could the Chief of Staff talk about it? Racism is not mentioned in the Chief of Staff's presentation. Inclusion is and diversity is.

I am sure it is implied. I would like the Chief of Staff to take a moment to comment on the number of people from diverse backgrounds who are in the Defence Forces – people from other nationalities and so on. What is the policy to encourage such people to join and be part of the Defence Forces?

I wish to ask about the Naval Service and the current situation regarding the number of ships that can go to sea at any one time right now. We speak about the ambition and I agree with the Chief of Staff there. Am I right in saying that it depends on the number of specialists available? What are the plans to retain the specialists? Have we been looking at retention payments? I know some are already there. How are they working? I know that in international experience it is mixed. I looked at some of the research on that. Has encouraging people to stay on been examined, especially people with specialist skills who are essential and not how many other people there are to take the ships to sea?

I ask about the head of transformation and where that is at the moment. How many applications have been received with respect to that particular post that was advertised a little while ago? What is the remuneration for that post, if the Chief of Staff can tell us? I am curious. I am aware that is an important job in other organisations. Will it be a temporary job and time limited for a number of months or years? It implies that when you transform an organisation, the job is done. Will it be an ongoing transformation? My understanding of these roles is that once the main bulk of the transformation has occurred, people in that role in other organisations often move on. They do not stay put.

I refer to the head of strategic HR. Where is that at the moment? The same questions apply there. I guess that would be a longer term role. The Chief of Staff might tell me about that.

I wish to ask about recruitment and, in particular, the amount of time takes from when somebody makes an initial application to when he or she is attested. My understanding is it can take quite a while. During that interval, that person might move on to other things. Focusing on the aptitude psychometric tests, I have some questions about those, and I am sure the Chief of Staff is aware of them. I was told in 2021 that 4,408 aptitude tests were administered and the number of those who failed was 2,178. More than half of those who took them failed. If there is a 50% failure rate in aptitude tests, I would be raising questions as to whether the people who were interested and went to the trouble of taking the tests were actually interested in joining the Defence Forces or at least exploring that. If half of them failed the aptitude test, I wonder if the aptitude test is too hard. Perhaps we should all take one here and see how we get on. In 2016, 50% or more failed the aptitude test. I was told they are in line with best practice and other militaries use such testing in a similar manner in their selection processes. However, it seems to be very high. If young people are interested in joining and they hit this hurdle and they cannot go any further, perhaps it needs to be looked at or the Chief of Staff knows something about it that I do not.

That is it. Most of the other questions I wanted to ask have been asked already, so I will not repeat them.