Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 25 March 2004
13 Ms McManus asked the Minister for Defence if he has satisfied himself with the level of female membership of the Defence Forces, if he has plans to encourage the recruitment of a greater number of women; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [9289/04]
View answerThe Government is committed to a policy of equal opportunity for men and women in the Defence Forces, including the Reserve Defence Force, and to the full participation by women in all aspects of Defence Forces activities.
Women are eligible for service in the Army, Air Corps, Naval Service and Reserve Defence Force, and to compete for promotion on an equal basis and under the same general conditions as those which apply to men. Female officers are generally being promoted at the same stage in their career as male officers. All female personnel undergo the same training and receive the same military education as their male counterparts.
The military authorities advise that the trend for general service recruitment has been that 9% of all applicants have been female and that on average 9% 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.
Some 15.4% of applicants for the 2003 cadetship competition were female. Some 15.5% of successful candidates were female. Under the terms of the Employment Equality Act 1998, the Defence Forces are prohibited from operating recruitment policies that discriminate on grounds of gender. 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" and this height requirement now also applies to male recruits.
The Defence Forces actively encourage female applicants by carrying out the following activities. Where possible, all graphical advertisements and booklets produced for the Defence Forces show both male and female personnel and emphasise the fact that all applicants are assessed on an equal basis. Stands at recruiting fairs are generally staffed by male and female personnel. When the Defence Forces are invited to give talks at all female or at mixed schools, every effort is made to have a female speaker.
Over the past six years, the strength of female personnel in the Defence Forces has grown from 244 at the end of 1997 to 484 at the end of 2003. In percentage terms, this represents an increase from 2.11% to 4.61% of total strength.
The following table indicates the strength of females in the Defence Forces:
|
Lt Gen |
Maj Gen |
Brig Gen |
Col |
Lt Col |
Comdt |
Capt |
Lt |
Total Offrs |
SM |
BQMs |
Cs |
CQMs |
Sgts |
Cpls |
Total NCOs |
Ptes |
Cadets |
Total |
|
|
Army |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
11 |
30 |
33 |
75 |
0 |
0 |
3 |
1 |
10 |
87 |
101 |
206 |
15 |
397 |
|
Air Corps |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
2 |
3 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
7 |
8 |
9 |
1 |
21 |
|
Naval Service |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
14 |
16 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
44 |
5 |
66 |
