Joe Costello (Dublin Central, Labour)

Will the Minister not reconsider the numbers in the Permanent Defence Force? I am aware the White Paper indicated a number of 10,500 but it made provision for that to be increased. We have substantial United Nations commitments but we could only send 155 members to the Lebanon because any more would have exceeded the 10% limit about which we spoke. We also take part in battle groups so does the Minister not feel that, given the current requirements of our Permanent Defence Force abroad, we could usefully look again at reviewing the upper limit?

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