Willie O'Dea (Limerick East, Fianna Fail)

The reasons underlying the policy of ongoing recruitment, including having a cadet class every year, are still valid, despite the moratorium. The reasons are to help achieve a balanced age profile for the Defence Forces and to maintain the necessary strength and skill levels. As I indicated to the House, this has now been superseded by a moratorium with which we must comply because there is no point about talking generally about reducing public expenditure and then refusing to do so in any specific way.

As I said already to Deputy Deenihan, I made recommendations in a major submission to the Minister for Finance. This submission was made in writing and I spoke to the Minister as recently as today. I am to have a formal meeting with him very shortly. I do not wish to disclose to the House the terms of my submission. All I will say is that if Deputy Deenihan were to guess that the Cadet School was part of it, he might not be that far wide of the mark.

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