Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Wednesday, 6 Dec 2000

Vol. 527 No. 4

Written Answers. - Defence Forces Strength.

Ivor Callely

Ceist:

92 Mr. Callely asked the Minister for Defence the current strength of the Air Corps; the conditions of enlistment; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [28832/00]

Bernard J. Durkan

Ceist:

116 Mr. Durkan asked the Minister for Defence if he will increase the strength of the Naval Service over the next three years; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [28973/00]

Bernard J. Durkan

Ceist:

117 Mr. Durkan asked the Minister for Defence if he will increase the strength of the Air Corps over the next three years; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [28974/00]

Bernard J. Durkan

Ceist:

118 Mr. Durkan asked the Minister for Defence if he has any proposals to increase the strength of the Army; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [28975/00]

Bernard J. Durkan

Ceist:

119 Mr. Durkan asked the Minister for Defence the current strength, male and female, of the Army, Naval Service and Air Corps; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [28976/00]

Minister for Defence (Mr. M. Smith)

I propose to take Questions Nos. 92, and 116 to 119 inclusive, together.

The following tabular statements indicate the strength of male and female personnel within the Permanent Defence Force, PDF, as at 30 September 2000, the most recent date for which such figures are currently available from the military authorities. These figures provide a breakdown between officers and various non-commissioned ranks across the Army, Naval Service and Air Corps.

The White Paper on Defence lays down a total strength for the PDF of 10,500, personnel. The recent PricewaterhouseCoopers special studies on the Naval Service and Air Corps set out recommended overall strengths of 1,144 for the Naval Service and 930 for the Air Corps respectively. These will be met from within the overall Permanent Defence Force figure.

The restructuring of the Permanent Defence Force to secure conformity with the White Paper's total strength of 10,500 and also with the recommendations of the management consultants on both the Naval Service and the Air Corps will be achieved by way of the very detailed implementation plans for each of the services.

Women are eligible for service in the Army, Air Corps, Naval Service and in the Reserve Defence Force and to compete for all appointments on an equal basis and under the same general conditions as those which apply to men. All female personnel undergo the same training and receive the same military education as their male counterparts.

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.

In previous years the trend for general service recruitment has been that 16% of all applicants have been female and that on average 16% 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.

The conditions of enlistment for general service recruits assigned to the Air Corps are the same as those for recruits enlisted in the Army except in the case of special categories of intake such as apprentices.

Strength of Females in the Defence Forces

30 September 2000.

	LTGEN	MAJGEN	BRIGGEN	COL	LT COL	COMDT	CAPT	LT	TOTALOFFRS	SM	BQMS	CS	CQMS	SGTS	CPLS	TOTALNCOS	PTES	CADETS
Army	0	0	0	0	0	6	31	23	60	0	0	1	1	11	40	53	231	12
Air Corps	0	0	0	0	0	0	2	2	4	0	0	0	0	1	4	5	12	2
Naval Service	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	6	7	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	38	6

Strength of Males in the Defence Forces

30 September 2000.

	LTGEN	MAJGEN	BRIGGEN	COL	LT COL	COMDT	CAPT	LT	TOTALOFFRS	SM	BQMS	CS	CQMS	SGTS	CPLS	TOTALNCOS	PTES	CADETS
Army	1	2	4	32	110	363	298	162	972	34	42	14	237	1,029	1,772	3,254	4,386	27
Air Corps	0	0	1	2	6	35	34	4	118	7	4	33	12	107	175	338	335	35
Naval Service	0	0	1	2	11	41	26	31	112	7	7	69	10	187	160	440	390	8