Willie O'Dea (Limerick East, Fianna Fail)

Deputy Timmins will be aware that in the 2002 budget, the Minister for Finance announced a cap on numbers working in the public sector and in addition announced a personnel reduction of 5,000. My Department's contribution to that is to phase out the 250 extra recruits over a three-year period. We are still authorised to have 10,500 members of the Permanent Defence Force. Regarding the Naval Service, there are 45 recruits in training out of a total of 250 Permanent Defence Force recruits. Regarding particular officerships and particular positions where there are vacancies, such as watchkeeping officers and marine engineers, the 45 people in training for those positions constitutes a record number.

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