To ask the Minister for Defence what period of training a recruit undergoes on joining the Army, and if this period is spent in a recognised training camp where the recruit is not liable for ordinary duty; and whether the practice prevails of sending recruits of seventeen years of age into disturbed areas within a month of their enlistment.
CEISTEANNA—QUESTIONS. [ ORAL ANSWERS. ] - TRAINING AND DUTIES OF RECRUITS.
The Minister for Defence has asked me to read the following reply:—Up to recently the general conditions as regards recruiting and working had been such that outside large centres such as Dublin, Cork, Limerick, and Athlone, it could not be said that there was a definite period of training for a recruit. A large number of men did, however, go through a purely training period of from four to eight weeks at the Curragh. Once, outside the Curragh, the responsible officer in charge of his unit was satisfied that a man was fit to handle a gun properly, he was liable to be called on for ordinary duty. Continual attention was, however, paid in the course of the ordinary day's work to the necessity for training, and no opportunity was lost to perfect this. Only in large centres such as have been mentioned were there units recognised as undergoing a training course.
The practice has not prevailed, and does not prevail, of enlisting youths under 18 years of age.
Since the 1st March, 1923, recruiting has been put on a new basis, and all recruits accepted after that date are sent to the Curragh on enlistment. They will spend at the Curragh a training period of, approximately, two months.
I am sorry the Minister himself is not here, because the case I had in mind was that of a young man, aged seventeen years and two months, who enlisted last October, and was sent from Dublin to Clare within a month of his enlistment.