Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Deputy for his comments and questions. On recruitment to the Permanent Defence Forces, 435 personnel had been inducted, including 350 general service recruits, as of 31 December last, but, as I said earlier, that is not enough, not least in light of the number of retirements. There are difficulties relating to specialist skills and to those who develop specialist skills within the Defence Forces being poached or sought after by the private sector. Those are ongoing challenges. We are progressing a range of measures, including an ongoing scheme permitting former personnel with specialist skills to re-enter the Defence Forces, a review of the maximum recruitment age limits for all competitions, which I am accelerating, a campaign to re-enlist former enlisted personnel and recommission former officers, and direct entry recruitment, a campaign that is continuing and is under way.

The Deputy mentioned rebranding, and the branding tender is part of that to increase the profile. We have to increase the profile even more, as I have been saying openly and to military management and officials in respect of commissioned officers, COs, to give young people in our schools clear career pathways within our Defence Forces and to put them in front of them. I had a recent meeting with military management in respect of recruitment. It is an ongoing issue weekly to determine what we can do quickly to turn this around. I have been in the job about two months, and retention is a key focus for me parallel to the recruitment campaign, as it continues.

On the RDF, I met the representative group yesterday. It was a good meeting and they are very sincere, committed people, although they are concerned, to put it bluntly. I will meet military management on this and make clear this is a priority of mine. We want the objectives of the commission to be realised here. I have given instructions in respect of accelerating the processing of those who have applied to be recruited into the RDF. When I attended a presentation in respect of this matter on Monday, I was not happy that even on medicals, for example, it is just too slow. I have given instructions, therefore, that we conduct one tender for medicals, to be outsourced and done quickly. I accept what the Deputy is saying. If 1,000 apply to join the Defence Forces, it simply is not good enough that they would not be progressed more quickly than they have been. As far as I am concerned, the RDF is a very important component of the entire defence framework within the country. If people are willing to volunteer for it, we should be in a position to respond proactively and deliver for them. If we look at other countries of the European Union, such as Finland, although I am not advocating this, every young person there does two years of various kinds of service, because of the geopolitical circumstances that country has faced historically. Here, 1,000 people applied in one year and we are having difficulty processing that number. That is not tenable. I am being straight up. I have given instructions and said to my officials what I want done in respect of that.