Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I propose to take Questions Nos. 1 and 3 together.

As the Deputy will be aware, the Permanent Defence Force is currently under strength by just over 1,000 personnel. The report of the Commission on the Defence Forces made it clear that the level of ambition for the Defence Forces must be elevated beyond that at which it is operating at the moment. The report outlines three levels of ambition. Level of ambition 1 is essentially proceeding as we are at present and trying to move back to a full establishment figure of 9,500. The commission concluded that this would leave the Defence Forces unable to mount a credible defence of the State. Level of ambition 2 would address specific priority gaps to improve on-island and overseas capabilities. Level of ambition 3 would bring Ireland in line with other small neutral European countries in terms of spend. I am on the record as saying that level of ambition 2 is the minimum for which we should aim. This level of ambition will require an additional 2,000 personnel beyond the establishment figure of 9,500 and an increase in the defence budget of some 50%. The Defence Forces are responsible for recruitment and I have requested them to examine their recruitment practices and structures to facilitate this increase in numbers.

This commission report also includes,inter alia, consideration of issues relating to culture, recruitment and retention, working hours, work-life balance, training, promotion, diversity and a host of other matters, all of which will have an impact on job satisfaction and morale. Following relevant consultation, I will revert to the Government with a proposed response to the commission's recommendations and a high-level action plan, which will set out proposed timelines and oversight arrangements for its implementation.

In the interim, my focus remains on restoring all branches of the Defence Forces to the current agreed strength. In that context, a number of initiatives are presently being implemented to counter ongoing staffing challenges. There is ongoing general service and direct-entry recruitment and some 110 personnel have been inducted to date in 2022. Retention measures include service commitment schemes in the Air Corps and Naval Service, and the seagoing naval personnel tax credit. Pay has improved as a result of increases arising from the Public Service Pay Commission report and from recent pay agreements. Agreement has also been reached on the extension of service limits for privates and corporals, with discussions ongoing relating to sergeants.

With regard to recruitment and retention, as the Deputy knows, because we discuss it every time we have questions in this Chamber, there are challenges to which we are trying to respond. I have visited virtually every barracks around the country to speak to serving personnel about their issues and concerns and what drives them in terms of staying in the Defence Forces to maintain a career there. The process we are going through at the moment seeks to put a credible action plan in place with the necessary budget, policy changes and restructuring within the Defence Forces, with the support of the Department of Defence, to be able to plan for a future in which we will have significantly more personnel in the Defence Forces, with increased resourcing to deal with the capacity challenges that the commission report has exposed. That is a huge piece of work. A civil military team from the Defence Forces and Department of Defence is working on that now and talking to the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform. I will be briefing the party leaders in a couple of weeks in relation to our ambition in that regard.

I hope this significant piece of work will result in the Government, as a collective, making a decision to significantly increase investment in the Defence Forces to respond to the evidence base, which is very clear in the commission report, but also to the international context in which we are living at the moment in respect of the war in Ukraine.

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