Lisa Chambers (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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281. To ask the Taoiseach and Minister for Defence the current vacancies in the Air Corps; and the timeframe ffor which each vacant position has been vacant. [6548/17]

Paul Kehoe (Wexford, Fine Gael)
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The number of vacancies in the Air Corps as of the 31st December, 2016 (the latest date for which figures are available) was 208 personnel.

The 208 vacancies are as follows:

- 47 Officers

- 57 Non-Commissioned Officers

- 104 Airmen / Airwomen

Currently some twenty-eight Cadets are in training. In addition, a new apprentice class will be inducted in March along with general service enlistment amounting to some 30 personnel. I will also be shortly announcing details of additional recruitment to the Defence Forces in 2017. This will include additional Cadets for pilot training, general enlistment to fill Airmen and Airwomen vacancies and a further apprentice class. Finally, agreement on a new promotion scheme for NCOs was reached recently with PDFORRA and work on promotion competitions to fill NCO vacancies across all three services in the Defence Forces is now in hand.

I am informed by the military authorities that it is not possible to provide information regarding the length of time each position has been vacant, as the Personnel Management System utilised by the Defence Forces does not record this data.