Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 21 March 2017
1326. Deputy Aengus Ó Snodaigh asked the Taoiseach and Minister for Defence if he will provide a progress report on increases to personnel in the Army, Air Corps, Naval Service and Reserve to meet the proposals in the White Paper on defence. [12822/17]
View answerThe 2015 White Paper on Defence commits to maintaining the strength of the Permanent Defence Forces 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. As at 28 February 2017 the strength of the Permanent Defence Forces stands at 9,070 (Whole Time Equivalent) i.e. 7293 Army, 701 Air Corps and 1,076 Naval Service personnel. With the support of the Chief of Staff and within the resources available, it is intended to retain the capacity of the Defence Forces to operate effectively across all roles and to undertake the tasks laid down by Government both at home and overseas.
As there is significant turnover of personnel in the Permanent Defence Force, recruitment continues to take place so as to maintain the agreed strength levels. In total 590 General Service Recruits (501 Army. 89 Navy) were inducted in 2016, along with 100 Cadets between all services. To date in 2017, 106 General Service Recruits (103 Army and 3 Navy) and 10 Air Corps Trainee Military Aircraft Technicians have been inducted.
Recruitment campaigns are continuing at the present time and this year the Defence Forces are planning for the induction of 860 new entrants, the majority of whom will be drawn from 2017 Recruitment Competitions.
It is expected that the following competitions will be launched in Spring 2017: Army Cadetship, Army Equitation Cadetship, Army Engineer Cadetship, Air Corps Cadetship, Naval Service Operations Cadetship, Naval Service Marine Engineer Cadetship, Naval Service Electrical Engineer Cadetship, Air Corps Trainee Military Aircraft Technician, Army General Service Recruits, and Naval Service General Service Recruits.
The 2015 White Paper on Defence commits to maintaining the strength of the Reserve Defence Forces at 4,169 personnel, comprising of 3,869 Army Reserve and 300 Naval Service Reserve. The effective strength of the RDF as of 28 Feb 2017 stands at 1,970. It is anticipated that the next RDF recruitment campaign will commence in the second half of 2017, however, until then the RDF will continue to induct from the 2015/2016 panel, subject to the applicant satisfying all induction criteria.
