2026-05-07

73. Deputy Darren O'Rourke asked the Minister for Defence to provide an update on the personnel number of the Defence Forces for 2026, 2025 and 2024; the steps she is taking to increase numbers and strengthen the Defence Forces; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [31761/26]

84. Deputy Cathy Bennett asked the Minister for Defence the establishment figure of the Defence Forces; the figure required under level of ambition 2 of the report of the Commission on the Defence Forces; and the total number in 2019 and currently. [33261/26]

I ask the Minister to update the House on the Defence Forces personnel numbers for 2026, 2025 and 2024. What steps are being taken to increase those numbers and to strengthen the Defence Forces?

I propose to take Questions Nos. 73 and 84 together. I am fully committed to supporting the Defence Forces to increase numbers and, overall, to strengthening our Defence Forces. It was positive to see the growth in numbers last year, with 790 inductions. I have set a target of 850 inductions for 2026. Indeed, overall application numbers for careers in the Defence Forces continue to grow, with a total of 16,510 applications received in 2025 and more than 7,000 received to end of March 2026. On top of that, the number of people who left last year was at an all-time low over the last ten years. Not only are we seeing more people applying, but we are getting our numbers up in terms of the overall inductions. The number of people who are leaving, because our retention figures are much better, is at a low over the past ten years. I recently visited the joint induction training centre in Gormanston barracks, an impressive facility in our own county, which is under expansion and will eventually facilitate the induction of up to 900 recruits per annum. Following investment of over €8.8 million, I officially opened the accommodation base in Haulbowline, as I have mentioned, which will accommodate an additional 74 personnel. The military authorities have provided the requested establishment and strength figures over the last seven years, which are set out in the table that is included with this reply. What we are seeing over the last number of years is an increase in that overall strength. Coupled with the increase in applications over the last three years, this shows that the enabling measures we are putting in place to support and drive Defence Forces recruitment retention numbers are yielding results. I will outline some of the measures. We have increased the maximum ages of recruitment and retirement respectively. This was aligned with the increased age for An Garda Síochána as well. It also includes the extension of private secondary healthcare to all personnel and the application of the provisions of the working time directive, which is something the unions quite rightly fought for and engaged with for some time. The patrol duty allowance payable to Naval Service personnel at sea has been doubled after ten days at sea in a calendar year, while the Naval Service tax credit has been extended up to 2029. There continues to be significant progress on pay with all personnel benefiting from a pay award in February with a further increase due in June. We now have a situation where our Defence Forces personnel are represented by unions at those pay talks, which is really important as well. Underpinning these and other measures, my colleague ensured that budget 2026 provided a record allocation of €1.49 billion, an increase of €145 million on 2025. These funds include provision for the recruitment of a net 400 additional members per annum. Opportunities for careers in the Defence Forces remain open via a diverse range of ongoing competitions including general service recruitment, re-entry schemes and multiple direct entry competitions for specialist roles. While recruitment and retention remains a challenge, and that is the case across a lot of our public sector, significant strides continue to be made on a number of fronts. We have record levels of expenditure and investment. We are seeing the numbers of people who apply and, importantly, the number of people who stay increase on a year-on-year basis. I want and need to ensure, as we all do, that we continue on that trajectory. If we are to meet our level of ambition 2 and go beyond that, we need to make sure we have a steady plan and are on the right trajectory, which we currently are.

I do not agree. I will be interested to see the figures, which I understand the Minister will provide. According to the latest information we have, which is from the end of 2025, the target for the Naval Service, for example, was 1,094 personnel and the target for level of ambition 2 for 2028 was 1,794 personnel, whereas the number in situ in late 2025 was roughly 784. That means we needed more than 1,000 additional members to be recruited by 2028. Is that going to happen? What are the latest figures the Minister has for the Naval Service? My concern is that we are a long way off that level of ambition 2 figure.

We have set targets for 2028 and meeting them is going to be a challenge. I will not say otherwise. However, I believe that the higher the targets we set ourselves, the quicker we will reach them and the more we do to encourage and support more people to apply and also to retain our overall numbers, the quicker we will reach those establishment figures. In terms of the Naval Service, this year the figure has gone up again. It is now at 833. With an establishment figure of 1,094, however, there is obviously still work to be done. The overall figures show that of the 7,000 people who applied in the first three months of this year, 23% applied to the Naval Service. If 23% of 7,000 applicants in the first three months were applying to the navy, we are clearly starting to see the numbers increase, which is really positive. That is down to the fact that now, for the first time ever, we have a national maritime security strategy and are very clearly focused on how we can invest in the navy, its ships, fleet and personnel. We are now developing new equipment the Naval Service will use on our fleet. As part of the advancement of the new military radar programme, we will see new radar capability on our ships this year. In addition, the Naval Service will also deploy sonar equipment. We are focused on our Naval Service. We are going to invest in it and we are talking about how good it is. It does a huge amount of work. On a 24-7 basis, seven days a week, 100% of our exclusive economic zones, EEZs, are monitored. Of the eight vessels we have, four are out on rotation at any given time, as are two helicopters. Due to that and the support we have from the Air Corps, our EEZs are monitored all of the time. To Deputy Smith's comment, it is when things do not happen that we tend to talk about them but the fact is we have had successful monitoring, we are able to respond to challenges and we are working closely with other countries. We need to highlight that more. My ambition is obviously to be as ambitious as we can be but also to highlight what the Naval Service is doing and how important it is to us, and to encourage more people to join the navy because we want to grow it and we have more work to do.

The Minister has acknowledged that recruitment is a challenge and will be a challenge until 2028. I hope she will acknowledge that retention is also an issue. Defence Force members in County Meath, the Minister's constituency and mine, raise with me the issues of breaches of the working time directive and recognition, respect and fair pay for our Defence Forces and for the overtime they do. Does the Minister recognise that is a contributing factor in terms of the recruitment and the retention of Defence Force members? How will she address that?

We always need to do more in terms of retention. However, the fact that the numbers leaving was at a ten-year low is a positive sign. Notwithstanding that, as regards any measures brought to me by the unions, all of which I met in the first part of this year, I have given a commitment to actively work with the unions and overcome any challenges, particularly when it comes to overtime or working on bank holidays. That was raised recently and I also discussed it during oral questions recently. We are working through that. More broadly, if we want to get our numbers to where they need to be, we need to make sure we look not only at recruitment to the Defence Forces but also at civilianisation more broadly. That is the path we have taken with An Garda Síochána where it has obviously improved numbers. Everyone brings something different and significant to the roles as well. A new workforce plan is being developed by the Defence Forces, working with my Department, and I hope to be able to present that in the coming weeks and months. That will set out the overall figures and also what we need within those figures, how we get to those figures and, importantly, how we increase the number of civilians we have working within the Defence Forces as well. There is a greater need and role for civilians if we are to achieve the overall numbers. It comes down to making sure that we have a continued focus on investment in the critical infrastructure and resources that our Defence Forces use and need. It is about making sure, through public sector pay agreements, local bargaining and other negotiating options, that our Defence Forces benefit in the same way everybody else does. I stress again that it is very welcome our members are now, through the unions, around the table and part of the discussions. Any public sector pay agreement is about making sure that as issues emerge, we respond to them and that, more broadly, we highlight the positive work our Defence Forces do and the contribution they make, not just home but abroad. We discussed the triple lock earlier. The first thing that comes to everybody's mind is the work we have done in Lebanon and the unbelievable contribution our Defence Forces have made in that regard. We need to highlight that work and make sure it is seen as a worthwhile career. The Defence Forces are doing extremely meaningful work in very challenging and difficult circumstances.