Pádraig O'Sullivan (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail)
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469. To ask the Taoiseach and Minister for Defence the status of issues with the campaign on rejoining of the Defence Forces (details supplied). [38807/20]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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The terms and conditions of a scheme for re-commissioning former Officers of the Permanent Defence Forces (PDF) were agreed in 2018. This scheme facilitates the re-entry of former officers, where vacancies exist, and where there are particular skillsets that are not available in the PDF at the time of the application to be re-commissioned.

The Military Authorities have advised that before recommending the re-commissioning of any individual, there is a requirement to assess the level of deficiency in personnel, military capability or expertise in the PDF that cannot be resolved in a sustainable or timely manner from within existing personnel resources within the relevant Service.

In this regard, applications to areas where the strength of that rank is at capacity or where there is a surplus of a particular skillset at the time of application, cannot therefore be advanced.

While I cannot comment on any individual case, I appreciate all interest expressed by former officers in this scheme.