asked the Minister for Defence if his attention has been drawn to the fact that the Naval Service was 36 officers short on the 31 December 1979; the steps taken to improve this situation; if he considers the conditions of service for officers are satisfactory and if he intends to improve them.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Naval Service Officers.
6.
There are at present 28 Naval Service cadets in training and it is proposed to appoint a further 18 this year. These cadets will, when commissioned, fill officer vacancies in the Naval Service. In addition, my Department has advertised for suitably qualified direct entry officers to fill vacancies in the Naval Service.
The conditions of service of all personnel of the Defence Forces are kept under regular review by my Department and I consider that, within the resources available for this purpose, the conditions of service of officers of the Naval Service are generally satisfactory.
7.
asked the Minister for Defence if he will explain why only 17 Naval Service cadets were recruited in 1979 although there were 22 official vacancies and 288 applicants.
Competitions were held in 1979 for the award of 22 cadetships in the Executive and Engineering Branches of the Naval Service. There were 15 vacancies in the Executive Branch and, of the 18 candidates found suitable for appointment, 12 accepted offers of appointment. There were seven vacancies in the Engineering Branch and, of the eight candidates found suitable for appointment, five accepted offers of appointment.
Does the Minister agree that there is something wrong when one has 288 applicants and only 17 were recruited although there were vacancies for 22? Could the Minister elaborate on the problems there?
As I have pointed out to the Deputy, in so far as the Executive Branch was concerned, 18 candidates were found suitable.
Out of 288.
Yes, out of 288, 12 accepted appointment. There were seven vacancies in the engineering branch and of the eight candidates found suitable, five accepted. I am sure there could be a number of reasons why some were not suitable. They might not be suitable because of their educational qualifications, or might not have passed the medical examination, or might not have been regarded as satisfactory at the interview.
A final supplementary, please.
Does the Minister not think that this is an alarming situation, where you advertise for recruits, 288 will apply—that is a large amount—and only 17 are regarded as being suitable and, according to the Minister's reply, only 12 were regarded as suitable. Is that correct?
Eighteen were suitable for one branch and eight for another. That makes a total of 26 who were suitable.
Twenty-six out of 288. Does that mean, in fact, that while striving to meet the demands of the establishment strength of the Navy, we are only getting 26 out of 288 applicants?
Less than 10 per cent.
Evidently those who are responsible for deciding on those who are suitable for the service regarded only that number as suitable.
Would the Minister consider then that would be something worthy of examination?
An Leas Cheann Comhairle
We cannot remain on the one question all day. Question No. 8.
I agree that the number looks big. Quite obviously those who are responsible did not regard any more than 26 as suitable.
Would the accommodation available have anything to do with it?
No. Quite obviously it has not because, as I pointed out to the Deputy, there were 15 vacancies in the executive branch and 18 candidates were found to be suitable. Only 12 took the appointments whereas 15 would have been offered appointments. In respect of the other branch there were seven vacancies. There were eight suitable candidates, so that seven would have been offered appointments. In other words, 22 were offered appointments but they did not all accept.
In the course of his reply indicating the reasons people were not found suitable the Minister said that educational reasons might disqualify some people. Is there not an educational qualification for application? In other words, people who are educationally unqualified would not even be interviewed?
Not necessarily. For example, if applications were received before the results of the leaving certificate were available, there would be people applying for positions——
Dependent on getting the leaving certificate.
——who, when the results were published, would not have reached a satisfactory level.