Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)
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1462. To ask the Taoiseach and Minister for Defence the estimated cost of increasing the Defence Forces personnel to a compliment of 9,500 and 10,500. [19542/17]

Paul Kehoe (Wexford, Fine Gael)
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As of 28 February 2017 (the latest date for which figures are available), the serving strength of the Permanent Defence Force was 9,070 whole-time equivalent personnel. The pay allocation for the Permanent Defence Force in 2017 is €417 million and this amount will allow for the payment of the full establishment of 9,500 personnel in accordance with the current organisation structures. The Government is committed to maintaining the strength of the Permanent Defence Force at or near the establishment figure of 9,500 personnel. A major new recruitment drive was recently announced targeting an intake of some 860 personnel, including general service recruits, apprentices and cadets.

As the Government has no plans to increase the Defence Forces beyond 9,500, costings are not maintained in relation to that and, therefore, I am not in a position to provide such a costing. As the Deputy will appreciate, developing a realistic costing on increasing the establishment to 10,500, is not simply a straight-line calculation. Achieving and sustaining such an increase would happen over a phased basis and would require the inclusion of other expenditure issues such as the training and accommodation infrastructures for such a larger force, along with training staffs etc., additional equipment, and potentially additional organisational and command structures. In addition, the issue of where such an increase in personnel was to be applied – e.g. Air Corps, Naval Service, Army or specialist corps – would have significant implications in terms of any cost calculation.