Lisa Chambers (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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23. To ask the Taoiseach and Minister for Defence the status of the 2016 recruitment campaign for the Defence Forces; the reason the whole-time equivalent strength of the Permanent Defence Force had fallen to 9,025 as of 31 July 2016; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [27241/16]

Paul Kehoe (Wexford, Fine Gael)
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The Government is committed to maintaining the stabilised strength of the Permanent Defence Force at 9,500 personnel, comprising 7,520 Army, 886 Air Corps and 1,094 Naval Service as stated in the 2015 White Paper on Defence. I am advised by the military authorities that the strength of the Permanent Defence Force at 31 July 2016, the latest date for which details are available, was 9,025, comprising 7,233 Army, 718 Air Corps and 1,074 Naval Service whole-time equivalent personnel. The manpower requirement of the Defence Forces is monitored on an ongoing basis in accordance with the operational requirements of each of the three services. In line with HR policy, there is significant turnover of personnel in the Permanent Defence Force due to the requirement to maintain a lower age profile. Targeted recruitment has been and is currently taking place so as to maintain the agreed strength levels.

The current general service recruitment campaign which was launched on 13 April 2016 envisages an intake of approximately 600 general services recruits in 2016. The military authorities have advised that 282 general service recruits have been enlisted to date in 2016, with a further 320 recruits to be enlisted by year end. Plans have been put in place to continue this phased general service recruitment in 2017 in a manner designed to reach the established strength figure.

In relation to the officer cadre, a total of 97cadetships were awarded following the 2016 competition, comprising of 68 Army, 2 equitation school, 12 Air Corps and 15 Naval Service cadetships. The Army cadets commenced training on 26 September in the Defence Forces cadet school. This is the highest cadet intake in the history of the State.

Direct entry competitions are also held as required, from which specialist appointments are filled. An air corps apprentice aircraft technician competition was launched on 9 August 2016, from which it is planned to enlist 25 apprentice aircraft technicians. A direct entry competition is also ongoing for suitably qualified applicants.

Lisa Chambers (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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The Minister says the Government is committed to maintaining a stabilised force and to achieving a number of 9,500 but this is not the first time I have asked him what he is doing to achieve that figure. We are now at 9,025, which is considerably below the figure of 9,500 at which we should be and that is the minimum. The Government launched a recruitment drive back in April but we have not yet seen the fruits of that. Does the Minister not accept that just above 9,000 is way too few for the Permanent Defence Force to maintain its capabilities and to continue to do the fantastic work it does in ensuring we care for our sovereignty and maintain our borders? I see no real movement on these figures. Instead, there seems to be a constant downward trajectory and something radical needs to happen. What the Minister is doing is not enough to get up to the figure at which we need to be.

Paul Kehoe (Wexford, Fine Gael)
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I agree that the Irish Defence Forces do an absolutely outstanding job and I have been assured by the Chief of Staff that they have the capabilities to carry out any duty or mission that may be required of them. I refute the suggestion that the Government is not committed to bringing people into the Irish Defence Forces. I attended the induction of Army cadets yesterday in the Curragh and, in total, almost 100 cadets will start in the Army, Air Corps and Naval Service this year, the highest number in the history of the State. We have a general intake of privates and enlisted personnel and I believe we will be close to 9,500 at the end of the year.

Lisa Chambers (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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I am glad the Minister mentioned the officer corps because, according to RACO, the representative body of serving members of the officer corps, there is a mass exodus of officers from our Defence Forces. If this is not addressed, it could seriously affect our operating capabilities. So far this year, 48 applications have been processed for early retirement from the officer corps and there are currently 90 officer vacancies. Last year, 76 officers quit the corps. RACO said that management had disappointingly failed to engage with or constructively respond to issues and concerns raised at its conference. These include the failure to address ongoing retention of personnel and the failure to put in place family-friendly policies. At the moment, we are constantly moving people around and we expect them to stay in our Defence Forces when they cannot possibly maintain a healthy family life. I urge the Minister to facilitate members in having a family-friendly working environment and adequate IT facilities, with hot desks so that they can work from remote locations. I urge him to restore the instructors' allowance, as this encouraged people to stay in our Defence Forces, and I also ask him to restore the Army ranger wing allowance. We need to compete with the private sector but we are not doing that and are losing people because we are not an attractive option for qualified, experienced and excellent personnel. If we do not do something about that, we are in danger of losing very good people whom we will not get back.

Paul Kehoe (Wexford, Fine Gael)
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The Deputy mentioned family-friendly policies and we have been very active in bringing family-friendly policies to the fore. The fact that male or female participants may spend three months on missions abroad and have an exchange with somebody for the following three months is a welcome addition. I have asked the general officer commanding in each of the brigades if enlisted personnel living near Kilkenny barracks or Cork or Galway barracks can do their training in the nearest barracks to their home, rather than someone from Galway having to travel to Cork or somebody from Cork having to travel to Galway. It can be very difficult to do this at times but we try to facilitate it wherever possible.

I have been on top of this issue and will make sure we retain our numbers at 9,500, or as close to it as possible. That is why this is the biggest cadet class in the history of the State at almost 100 personnel.