Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

To be clear, I am not dismissing the retention issue whatsoever. I am saying we have a big retention issue, on which the Tánaiste has failed to get a handle. I have also said I welcome the increase in the mandatory retirement age but have said that will not, in itself, deal with the retention issue we face. The truth is that as of today, more people have left the Defence Forces this year than have joined. That is a fact the Tánaiste has confirmed to this House, and it was also a fact last year and in the previous year.

The Tánaiste might have been the Minister for Defence for only two years but he was Taoiseach, the Head of Government, before that, so he cannot absolve himself of responsibility for the crisis. He has announced the recruitment of 400 net additional members of the Defence Forces in 2023, but he missed that target. He set the same target for 2024 and missed that target too. By his own admission, there is no prospect of there being 400 additional members of the Defence Forces by the end of this year. Nothing the Tánaiste has said here gives me any confidence he will hit the same target he has set for a third year next year. We need a bit of honesty that the current approach is not working as effectively as it should and that a change of course is needed.

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