Gerard Craughwell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I have just come from an informal meeting of the Joint Committee on European Union Affairs with senior staff from the Departments of the Taoiseach and Foreign Affairs and Trade. I want to put on record my congratulations for the amount of work these officials are doing. It is going on quietly in the background. Very little can be said at this point in time in the public arena. I was quite taken by the commitment of the officials who were there. These are non-political officials who are working on Ireland's behalf all of the time and they deserve our congratulations and encouragement to keep at what they are at.

I refer to an item that appeared on Newstalk yesterday. I asked for a debate some time ago here with the Minister for Defence. A retired senior Army officer appeared on Newstalk yesterday morning and what he portrayed as the state of the Defence Forces was frightening, to say the least. We heard of ships being unable to sail because there were not engineering officers available. We heard that Ireland depends on 11 bomb disposal experts to man every corner of this country 24 hours a day, seven days a week. We learned, for example, that the retention rates of our commissioned officers are appalling, and the only career advancement young highly-trained officers are being offered is a job in Aldi or Lidl. That is appalling. We spend tens of thousands of euro training these officers up to the rank of captain or commandant and they have nowhere to go. There is a lack of opportunity for those in the lower ranks. Soldiers are now joining with leaving certificates - some are joining with degrees - into the ordinary ranks and I can discern no progression possibility for them to move into the commissioned ranks. We need to look at that as well. We are building up a massive problem for the future for young men and women who have joined the Defence Forces as cadets. We have an intake of 100 cadets this year. I understand that will happen again next year, and the year after. In five or six years' time, at least 50 of those cadets will have nowhere to go, at which stage the jobs in Aldi will probably be full, and they will have no career. We will spend tens of thousands of euro training them and they will have no career.

I realise the Leader has a lengthy agenda with respect to legislation coming through but we need a full debate on the Defence Forces and their future. There is not a senior Minister. The Taoiseach has taken that to himself. I cannot see him coming in here to answer questions, but really, he should. The Defence Forces is the backbone of our country. These are the guys who, as was said in one of those famous films, are standing on that wall at night while the rest of us are asleep. They are the people who are looking after our country. They are the people who are putting their lives on the line in Lebanon and other parts of the troubled world, day in, day out. They deserve better than what we are giving them as a nation. I would ask for an urgent and honest debate as to where we are going with the Defence Forces.