Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Government is very much committed to achieving a target of 9,500 personnel in our Permanent Defence Forces. In doing so, we are going to recruit 800 personnel this year, but as the Deputy points out very accurately, a large number of people leave the Defence Forces every year. Roughly 580 leave every year, and that has been the case for the past decade. Other militaries, such as that of the United Kingdom, are experiencing similar issues. It is a normal feature of military organisations to have quite a high turnover of personnel. We will recruit 800 to the Defence Forces this year. We have a particular issue around those with particular skills which are very valuable in the private sector, and with the economy recovering we are losing personnel from groups such as pilots, air traffic controllers and other skilled people to the private sector.

This afternoon, however, at the Permanent Defence Force Other Ranks Representative Association, PDFORRA, conference, the Minister of State with responsibility for Defence, Deputy Kehoe, will announce a series of measures relating to contracts, promotions and the Working Time Directive aimed at further increasing the attractiveness of the Defence Forces as a career option. One example of the impact of pay restoration is that newly qualified three star privates and their naval equivalents can now expect to earn €27,000 a year, up from €21,000 a year when pay restoration began.

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