Billy Timmins (Wicklow, Fine Gael)

I acknowledge the Minister's statement that changing the height requirement may not necessarily be the step that will result in a flood of female applications. He said that one submission referred to abolishing the height requirement and that there were other interesting suggestions. Will he share those with us?

Does the Minister agree that many other armies, including the US Army, have a far lower height requirement than that which obtains in Ireland and that there may be no medical basis for our height requirement? As I mentioned several times previously, a great number of females are precluded from joining the Defence Forces because their average height is less than that of men. The requirement is 5 ft. 4 in. for both males and females. Is there resistance from the Defence Forces to the reduction of the height requirement? One could make many cases for saying, the lower the height, the better, but I will not go into that.

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