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

I have had long discussions with RACO on this issue. It has repeatedly raised it with me and that is fair enough. It has a slightly different version of what happened to specialist instructors' allowances.

However, there is a broader question here that we must address. If we are going to be successful in recruiting the numbers we need to recruit and in maintaining standards in the Defence Forces, there will be a great deal of pressure on training within the Defence Forces in the context of upskilling and accommodating the numbers we have to bring into the Defence Forces over a relatively short period of time. The record over the last ten years or so in terms of recruitment and retention shows that we have an enormous challenge to add a net 3,000 to the Defence Forces over a number of years. That is going to put a lot of pressure on instructors in the Defence Forces. In that context, I believe we should look at this issue again to see how we can accommodate the concerns that have been raised by RACO.

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