Dáil Éireann debate -
Tuesday, 4 Dec 2001

Vol. 545 No. 4

Written Answers. - Defence Forces Recruitment.

Jan O'Sullivan

Question:

50 Ms O'Sullivan asked the Minister for Defence the number of female members of the Defence Forces at each rank; his plans to encourage increased participation of women in the Defence Forces; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [30661/01]

Minister for Defence (Mr. M. Smith)

The table which I propose to circulate with the Official Report indicates the number of female personnel within the Permanent Defence Force as at 30 November 2001. These figures provide a breakdown between officers and various non-com missioned ranks across each of the Army, Naval Service and Air Corps.

Some 61 female personnel have been recruited to the Defence Forces during the current recruitment campaign. One female direct entry engineer officer was appointed to the Engineer Corps in the rank of lieutenant on 28 May 2001. Six female army cadets were commissioned as second-lieutenants on 2 July 2001 and four female Naval Service cadets were commissioned as ensigns on 6 September 2001.

In previous years the trend for general service recruitment has been that 16% of all applicants have been female and that on average 16% of enlistments have been female. It is obviously not possible to predict what the relevant percentages will be in any future intakes of recruits, but there is no reason to assume that this pattern will change to any great degree.

Women are eligible for service in the Army, Air Corps, Naval Service and in the Reserve Defence Force and to compete for all appointments on an equal basis and under the same general conditions as those which apply to men. All female personnel undergo the same training and receive the same military education as their male counterparts.

In order to encourage increased participation by women in the Defence Forces I decided in March 1998 to reduce the height requirement for all female recruits to 5' 4".

Strength of Females in the Defence Forces

Army

LtGen	MajGen	BrigGen	Col	LtCol	Comdt	Capt	Lt	2/Lt	TotalOffrs	SM	Bqms	Cs	Cmqs	Sgts	Cpls	TotalNCOs	Ptes	Cadets	Total
0	0	0	0	0	11	29	18	9	67	0	0	1	1	12	56	70	247	10	394

Air Corps

LtGen	MajGen	BrigGen	Col	LtCol	Comdt	Capt	Lt	2/Lt	TotalOffrs	SM	Bqms	Cs	Cmqs	Sgts	Cpls	TotalNCOs	Ptes	Cadets	Total
0	0	0	0	0	0	1	2	0	3	0	0	0	0	1	2	3	15	3	24

Naval Service

LtGen	MajGen	BrigGen	Col	LtCol	Comdt	Capt	Lt	2/Lt	TotalOffrs	SM	Bqms	Cs	Cmqs	Sgts	Cpls	TotalNCOs	Ptes	Cadets	Total
0	0	0	0	0	0	0	4	6	10	0	0	0	0	0	1	1	35	4	50