Paul Kehoe (Wexford, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I do not accept there is a crisis in morale in the Irish Defence Forces. Actually I would say the opposite. We have issues and challenges, I will accept that, but we do not have a crisis of morale. The reason I say this is when we advertised in February this year for enlisted personnel and for the cadetship of 2017 more than 9,000 people, young men and women from throughout Ireland, applied. This is for enlisted personnel, the bedrock of our organisation, or the cadets, which is a very important leadership organ of our organisation. The Deputy mentioned the recruitment of a new assistant secretary in the Department of Defence. This is something I looked for once I was appointed because of the ever-increasing workload of the senior people in the Department. As the Deputy will appreciate, we have 12 overseas missions and a huge number of other areas of responsibility in the Defence Forces organisation. This has to come back through the civil side in the Department of Defence. The Deputy specifically spoke about personnel having to travel. Of course there are challenges about personnel having to travel and I have spoken about this. I have spoken to the Chief of Staff about this and it is something he has been trying to-----

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