Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)
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10. To ask the Taoiseach and Minister for Defence the number of applications to join the Defence Forces in each of the past five years; the number of those that successfully passed each stage of the recruitment process; the number of those that were subsequently enlisted in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [40805/18]

Paul Kehoe (Wexford, Fine Gael)
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I am informed by the military authorities that it was not possible to collate the information requested by the Deputy in the timeframe available. I shall provide the figures to the Deputy when I receive them from the military authorities.

Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)
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11. To ask the Taoiseach and Minister for Defence the amount spent on recruitment to the Defence Forces in each of the past five years; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [40807/18]

Paul Kehoe (Wexford, Fine Gael)
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The following table, provided by the military authorities, sets out the costs associated with recruitment advertising over the past five years:

In order to reduce panel waiting times, two general service recruit campaigns were held in 2017 and 2018. Other costs associated with recruitment such as training, equipment, provision of uniforms, meals, fuel costs and so on are not readily de-coupled from overall spending in those areas and are not routinely calculated.

The Government remains committed to reaching the authorised strength of 9,500 personnel for the Permanent Defence Force. There is ongoing recruitment to achieve that target and a range of alternative recruitment approaches are being developed. A working group is examining the scope for greater use of direct entry recruitment for certain specialist positions and steps are being progressed to enable former members of the Permanent Defence Force, who have sought after skills, to re-enter the PDF. I will continue to work closely with the Chief of Staff in developing these approaches.