Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I get a sense of the Government and the Taoiseach being detached from the reality of the crisis on the ground. The Taoiseach said recruitment is going well, but the fact of the matter is that the Government cannot recruit its way out of the crisis. It must address the retention issues. Between 1 January and 31 December 2017, for example, the significant recruitment drive by the Department of Defence and the associated burden on operational units and structures yielded a net increase of three personnel to the Defence Forces. We have been telling the Government about the issue for between two and three years. It is not something that has just arrived today. Morale is low at all levels. A recent Amarach Research survey, commissioned by RACO, found that 79% of post-2013 officers are strongly considering leaving well in advance of their retirement age due to the issue of supplementary pension before qualification for the State contributory pension.

At all levels, from pension to pay to allowances, there are no initiatives to retain people. In fact, it is in the opposite direction. All the inbuilt structures and so on are designed to incentivise people to leave the Army, the Air Corps and the navy. Even the Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment recruits people from the Army and pays higher rates than the Army can. The loss of expertise, from bomb disposal to the Naval Service, has been enormous over recent years, but all we have heard in reply is a studied indifference from the Government and a lack of urgency to deal with the crisis. Does the Taoiseach accept that?

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