Seán Ó Fearghaíl (Kildare South, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for his reply but I regret that I do not sense the Minister is willing to change tack. We are all committed to having in the Defence Forces men and women who are fit and able to carry out the onerous responsibilities they have from time to time. Nonetheless, we are now looking at a situation where people in their late 30s and early 40s will be forced out of the Defence Forces. They will be forced out into an extremely challenging employment market. Many of them have young families and significant mortgages and they will not be able to secure employment. That is something I am concerned about and I expect the Minister is concerned about it also. PDFORRA has highlighted the economic implications for the State. It suggests the cost to the State of pushing some of these young people into unemployment is €20,000 per year.

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