Billy Timmins (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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Question 326: To ask the Minister for Defence the position regarding the height restriction for females who wish to join the Defence Forces; the changes he has made; the process which has been carried out to change the regulations; when legislation to change same will come before Dáil Éireann; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [5863/06]

Willie O'Dea (Limerick East, Fianna Fail)
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The Government is committed to a policy of equal opportunity for men and women in the Defence Forces — Army, Air Corps, Naval Service — including the Reserve Defence Force, and to the full participation by women in all aspects of Defence Forces activities.

In effect this means that women are eligible on the same basis as men for participation in operational and ceremonial activities, for assignment to all military appointments and educational and training courses and for promotion. All female personnel undergo the same training and receive the same military education as their male counterparts. In order to encourage increased participation by women in the Defence Forces my predecessor decided in March 1998 to reduce the height requirement for all female recruits to 162.5cm — 5 ft. 4 ins. This height requirement now also applies to male recruits.

The Defence Forces actively encourage female applicants by: advertising — where possible, all graphical advertisements and booklets produced for the Defence Forces show both male and female personnel and emphasise that all applicants are assessed on an equal basis; recruitment fairs — stands at recruiting fairs are generally staffed by male and female personnel; visits to schools — when the Defence Forces are invited to give talks at all female or at mixed schools, every effort is made to have a female speaker.

Over the past eight years, the strength of female personnel in the Permanent Defence Force has increased from 244 at the end of 1997 to 529 at the end of December 2005. This constitutes an increase of over 100% in the number of females serving over this period.

On 5 August 2005 I wrote to the Departments of Education and Science and Justice, Equality and Law Reform along with a number of outside organisations seeking their views and recommendations on how more women might be encouraged to enlist in the Defence Forces. All the replies have now been received, the last on 17 January 2006, and are being examined. After this examination I propose that officials, civil and military, of the Department of Defence will meet with representatives of each of the organisations who made submissions along with the Representative Association of Commissioned Officers, RACO, and the Permanent Defence Force Other Ranks Representative Association, PDFORRA, to consider the ideas and suggestions and to see what, if any, improvements or changes can be made to the programme of recruitment so as to encourage more females to join the Defence Forces.