Charles Flanagan (Laois-Offaly, Fine Gael)
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I want to advise members that I have received correspondence from the Tánaiste regarding his engagement with the committee in October. In his statement, as members will recall, he outlined that the Chief of Staff of the Defence Forces had signalled his commitment to increasing the female ratio to 9% this year and the roll-out of focused initiatives to attract more women to join the Defence Forces had already begun. For the purposes of clarity, the Tánaiste wishes to confirm that the 9% referred to the Chief of Staff's female recruitment target for this year, and not to anything more general. I think the actual letter has been circulated. If members have any queries, we can deal with them in due course but I felt it was appropriate to point out the Tánaiste's clarification.