Mr. Maurice Quinn:

In terms of induction in 2016, of the 690 inducted into the Defence Forces 47 were women and 643 were men. A huge amount of work, in terms of best practice and recruitment, has been done to attract more women into the Defence Forces. It is important in the Irish Defence Forces that every promotion option and so forth is open to everybody equally. That has not always been the case. In this regard, the Chief of Staff has appointed a gender adviser. As I said, there is a huge amount of work being done in that area. Also, 15% of applications for 2016 were from women. It is a question of increasing the number of applicants such that more women are recruited.