Patrick Costello
Question:
209. Deputy Patrick Costello asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Defence further to Parliamentary Question No. 169 of 4 July 2023, for a breakdown, by rank, of the number of people leaving the Army, Naval Service and Air Corps, by month, over the past five years, in tabular form, and indicating whether those individuals had completed their agreed contract or if they had paid to exit their contract early; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [37554/23]
View answer
I am informed by the military authorities that it was not possible to collate the required information within the timeframe available. I shall provide the information to the Deputy once it becomes available.
The following deferred reply was received under Standing Order 51
I refer to the above-referenced Parliamentary Question and my original reply stating that it was not possible to provide the required information within the timeframe available. I am now in a position to do so. In Table 1 (attached), the military authorities have provided the requested details regarding the numbers of personnel who discharged, broken down by rank, branch, month and year from 2018 to 2023 (as at 31 July).
The term 'discharges' encompasses personnel who left for a variety of reasons including on age grounds, at end of contract and voluntary discharges. The discharge figures provided in Table 1 also include a number of trainees who exited prior to completion of their initial training. In any position where there is a training period prior to appointment there will always be fall off at different stages of the process.
In Table 2 (attached), the military authorities have provided the requested details regarding personnel who had discharged having completed their agreed contract and those that had paid to exit their contract early (discharge by purchase). The military authorities have advised that the figures provided for ‘contract fulfilled’ in the attached Table 2 are comprised of those personnel that discharged on termination of engagement, retired on age grounds and those that discharged on pension after 21 years. They have further advised that the requested breakdown by branch is unavailable as it is not collected as part of their reporting procedures and is therefore unavailable.
Table1.
Table2
