Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (Cork South-Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The Tánaiste spoke about an objective analysis. Any objective analysis would find that the previous Minister for Defence, who is now the Taoiseach and leader of Fianna Fáil, Deputy Micheál Martin, kept giving unspent money in defence back to the Exchequer. It was €30 million last year and €70 million in 2023 and 2022. Any objective analysis would find that more than 900 people recruited to the Defence Forces since 2020 left within five years. We have had the embarrassing situation where ships have been put to sea with no functioning main gun because of a lack of specialist staff. The objective analysis is that our Defence Forces are at rock bottom in terms of morale and seriously struggling in terms of recruitment and retention.

The Tánaiste gave me an answer to a related question but not quite the one I asked. Talking about progressing from LOA2 to LOA3 is a bit off when we are not at LOA1. When will the Defence Forces reach establishment in terms of personnel?

See this speech in context