Seán Haughey
Question:44. Deputy Seán Haughey asked the Minister for Defence to extend the deadline for recruitment into the Defence Forces from 22 May to 1 June 2016; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [9251/16]
View answerThursday, 5 May 2016
Questions (44, 45)
Seán Haughey
Question:45. Deputy Seán Haughey asked the Minister for Defence to extend the age limit for recruitment into the Army from 25 years of age to 27 years of age; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [9252/16]
View answerWritten answers
I propose to take Questions Nos. 44 and 45 together.
The Government is committed to maintaining the stabilised strength of the Permanent Defence Force at 9,500 personnel, comprising of 7,520 Army, 886 Air Corps and 1,094 Naval Service as stated in the 2015 White Paper on Defence. The manpower requirement of the Defence Forces is monitored on an ongoing basis in accordance with the operational requirements of each of the three services, the establishment of the Permanent Defence Force and available resources. As there is significant turnover of personnel in the Permanent Defence Force targeted recruitment takes place so as to maintain personnel numbers at or near the agreed strength levels as set out above in accordance with available training capacity. This approach is underlined by the recently announced General Service recruitment campaign, which was launched on 13 April 2016 with a closing date of 22 May 2016. This provides a window of five weeks for an individual to register their interest and apply. I am satisfied that the time period allocated is sufficient and I have no plans to extend it. The processing of applications through the system takes a significant amount of time involving psychometric tests, fitness tests, interview, medical examinations, security clearance etc. We need to move ahead with that process expeditiously in order to have a panel in place from which we can draw recruits later this year.
The upper age limit for enlistment in the Army and Air Corps is under 25 years of age on the closing date for receipt of applications for enlistment, and for the Naval Service it is under 27 years of age on the closing date for receipt of applications for enlistment. These limits are determined on the basis that the essential functions of the Permanent Defence Force requires that its members be composed of able-bodied personnel of an age which is commensurate with the functional requirements of the organisation as a whole. The Defence Forces have an ongoing objective of ensuring an appropriate age profile through continuous recruitment and congruent manpower planning, training and development and career management strategies. Given the health and fitness requirements for Privates and new recruits to the Defence Forces, I do not believe that it would serve the Defence Forces or the individual recruits well to increase the current age limits.