Paul Kehoe (Wexford, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Government approval has been received to maintain the strength of the Permanent Defence Force, PDF, at 9,500, the optimum level required to fill the roles assigned to it by Government. As the PDF is currently more than 300 below the agreed serving cadre, a general service recruitment will be undertaken in the autumn with the resource envelope allocated to the Department of Defence. It is our intention to maintain the floor at 9,500. Further recruitment will take place at the end of this year but the number to be recruited is dependent on the resource envelope available. We hope to be in a position to bring the force back up to the committed level of 9,500 personnel. It is our intention to do that.

As I indicated, a competition for cadets was advertised recently and it is intended that further general service recruitment will take place from existing competition panels in the autumn. The Deputy will understand that there was a significant level of interest following the advertisement for general enlistment. We will take people off the existing competition panels.

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