Pádraig O'Sullivan (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

On that specific point, the age limit has been increased in other sectors, including the Garda, recently and, therefore, I do not see why the Government would not envisage something like that in future for the Defence Forces.

Coming back to the Minister's point about stabilising figures, which I think he said was his immediate priority last autumn, I do not expect him to have a crystal ball but from dealing with his officials, is there enough capacity at the moment with respect to applications and recruitment that he thinks he has stabilised the numbers we are losing, namely, the 10% he spoke of? We have spoken previously about how challenging the labour market is at the moment and the demand for people who have come from the Defence Forces in other sectors. When will the Minister achieve that stabilisation? Does he have any comment on the working time directive, the kinds of conditions the armed forces are working under and progress on that?

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