Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Independent)
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To ask the Minister for Defence if he will confirm whether the Defence Forces are required to maintain a minimum number of personnel overall; if he will provide an itemised list of military equipment purchased for the Defence Forces over the past five years including the cost of each item purchased and which branch of the Defence Forces it was purchased for use in; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [6083/13]

Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael)
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The Government decided last year to accept my recommendation that the strength of the Permanent Defence Force will be maintained at 9,500. As I have previously mentioned in the House, I believe this is the optimum strength required to fulfil all roles currently assigned by Government.The Military Authorities have advised that the strength of the Permanent Defence Force at 31 December 2012, the latest date for which details are available, was 9,359 thus requiring the recruitment of approximately 140 personnel to maintain the agreed Permanent Defence Force strength of 9,500. The consolidation of the Defence Forces formations into a smaller number of locations is a key objective in the ongoing defence modernisation programme and has been recommended in many reports over the past number of years. This was a key consideration of Government in addressing barrack closures as releasing personnel from security and support functions enables the operational capacity of the Defence Forces to be maintained notwithstanding the fall in strength.

Investment in new equipment for the Defence Forces, including the Army, Air Corps and Naval Service, and the on-going maintenance support of and training on that equipment, is provided for under various Subheads of the Defence Vote. The main particular Subheads involved relate to defensive equipment, military transport, aircraft, ships and naval stores, communications and information technology equipment.

Details of the expenditure under the various subheads over the past five years are as follows:

*Based on Provisional Outturn

Taking into account the level of expenditure involved, a wide range of military equipment has been purchased over the past five years for operational use by the Defence Forces. In that context, it is not the practice to provide any itemised list of all equipment purchased or to give a breakdown of which branch of the Defence Forces the equipment was for, as to do so could, in particular circumstances, compromise operational and security factors for the Defence Forces.