Réada Cronin (Kildare North, Sinn Fein)
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151. To ask the Taoiseach and Minister for Defence to provide a breakdown of how the recent €100 million increase in the defence budget for 2025 will be allocated, particularly for personnel welfare, equipment upgrades, and infrastructural improvements; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [42590/24]

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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The Defence Vote Group has been provided with a funding allocation of €1,350 million in Budget 2025 - €1,021 million for the Defence Vote and €329 million for the Army Pensions Vote. This represents a €100m (8%) increase on the corresponding 2024 allocation.

For 2025, the key priority remains to progress the transformation of the Defence Forces as outlined in the Strategic Framework, supported by the Detailed Implementation Plan. In that context, the significant level of funding now provided will facilitate further progress and support the implementation of a range of recommendations and priorities identified in the Commission on the Defence Forces (CODF), the Independent Review Group (IRG) on Dignity & Equality Issues in the Defence Forces and the recently published Defence Policy Review.

The Defence Vote pay allocation has increased by €19 million to €568 million. This includes a PDF pay allocation of €469 million, which will provide for an expected year-end PDF strength of 7,600, the induction of a net additional 400 recruits and the full impacts of the National Pay Agreement in 2025. The Government has acknowledged recruitment and retention challenges in the Defence Forces and there are signs of stabilisation. There has been significant progress on pay and a range of initiatives have been introduced to support recruitment and retention, including an increase in the mandatory retirement age to 62, the doubling of the Naval Service Patrol Duty allowance, the further extension of the Naval Service tax credit and the extension of private secondary healthcare to all members of the PDF.

The non-pay current expenditure allocation on the Defence Vote will increase by over €30 million in 2025. In addition to ongoing operational and standing costs, this allocation will also provide targeted funding to facilitate, inter alia, an increase to the advertising budget to support an enhanced Defence Forces recruitment effort; the procurement of a replacement Defence Forces Uniform; additional civilian recruitment and an increased spend on external expertise and services; the full year costs of the Tribunal of Inquiry in 2025 and increased funding to support Air Corps fleet maintenance, airfield and training costs.

Capital investment in Defence, which largely provides for Defence Forces equipment and infrastructural needs, will increase by €39 million to €215 million in 2025. This is a clear demonstration of Government’s strong commitment to Defence and will provide the Defence Forces with an increased capacity necessary to respond to increasingly more complex global security threats and events.

The main Defence equipment projects set to progress in 2025 from the increased capital allocation include, but are not limited to, the Military Radar programme; the Military Transport Aircraft project; the acquisition of Software Defined Radio; the purchase of General Service Body Armour and the Sub-Sea Awareness project.

There has been significant investment in Defence Forces built infrastructure over recent years which has modernised and upgraded Defence Forces accommodation, dining, storage and training facilities across various military installations. This investment will continue in 2025 and some of the key infrastructural projects set to progress include: -

• Casement Military Medical Facility, Baldonnel;
• Refurbishment Block 1 Accommodation, Collins Bks, Cork;
• ARW HQ, DFTC, Curragh Camp;
• Air Corps Hangars (2 and 4), Baldonnel;
• Dining Hall, Aiken Bks, Dundalk.

Réada Cronin (Kildare North, Sinn Fein)
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152. To ask the Taoiseach and Minister for Defence if he will confirm the specific projects that will benefit from the Defence Forces' capital spending allocation, which is set to increase to €220 million by 2026; how this will impact operational capability; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [42591/24]

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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Capital investment in Defence is primarily directed at providing sufficient military capabilities, across land, air, maritime and cyber domains, to meet specific roles assigned to the Defence Forces. In the main, this investment is for the acquisition of defensive equipment and the construction or upgrade of barracks infrastructure.

Defence equipment capital expenditure projects are often atypical, with long lead-in times and are usually pursued over a multi-annual timeframe. The availability of comprehensive, internal capital planning frameworks, in the form of the Equipment Development Plan (EDP) for Defence Forces equipment acquisitions and the Infrastructural Development Plan (IDP) for Defence Forces built infrastructural projects, along with the establishment of a joint Civil-Military Capability Development Branch are key enablers within Defence capital planning processes.

The publication of revised multi-annual capital allocations in the National Development Plan (NDP), earlier this year included increases in the Defence capital allocation to €215 million in 2025 and €220 million in 2026. This represents an increase of €79 million (56%) in capital funding since the government approved the move to ‘Level of Ambition 2’ (LOA2), as set out in the capability framework devised by the Commission on the Defence Forces, and will bring the Defence capital allocation to its highest ever level in 2026. This increased level of funding will enable progress across a broad range of priority Defence equipment upgrade and replacement programmes over the coming years, such as:-

• Ongoing Land Forces Capability Development and Force Protection Programmes, including an upgrade of the military transport fleet, next generation IT, communications and signal equipment and force protection equipment;
• Ongoing Naval Service Vessel Renewal and Replacement Programme, which includes progression of the Multi-Role Vessel project, replacement of secondary armament across the fleet and enhanced sub-sea capabilities;
• Ongoing Air Corps Aircraft Renewal and Replacement Programmes, including the delivery, in 2023, of two C295 Maritime Patrol Aircraft which are now operational, with a third C295 aircraft in Military Transport specification scheduled for delivery in 2025. Additionally, new rotary wing capability will be the subject of a future procurement process beginning in the near term.

• Upgrade of former USAC Accommodation Block, Galway;
• New CIS Workshop Facility, Defence Forces Training Centre;
• New Garaging Facility, Defence Forces Training Centre;
• Various projects to develop the Joint Induction Training Centre in Gormanston Camp;
• Gymnasium works at Finner Camp, Casement Aerodrome, Haulbowline Naval Base and Renmore Barracks;
• Construction of two new hangars at Casement Aerodrome;
• Naval Base dredging works.