Mary Harney
Ceist:31 Miss Harney asked the Minister for Defence, in view of the fact that in the 1970s a great number of officers and private soldiers were recruited into the Defence Forces in order to fill the large number of vacancies which existed due to under-recruitment in the 1960s, resulting in a great body of officers and other ranks of the same age forming a block today with no hope of promotion, the steps, if any, he will take to ensure that recruitment over the next 20 years will be according to a programme of planned intake; and the steps, if any, he will take to ensure that this well-educated, highly trained, loyal and well-motivated body of officers, now to be rendered redundant, will, as far as possible, be offered employment in other areas of the public service. [14445/96]