Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 16 June 2004
70 Ms O’Sullivan asked the Minister for Defence if he has satisfied himself with the current level of female membership of the Defence Forces; if he has plans to encourage the recruitment of a greater number of women; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [17819/04]
Amharc ar fhreagra82 Ms O’Sullivan asked the Minister for Defence the highest rank held by female personnel in the Army, the Naval Service, and the Air Corps; if he has satisfied himself with the progress made by women members up the ranks; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [17820/04]
Amharc ar fhreagraI propose to take Questions Nos. 70 and 82 together.
The Government is committed to a policy of equal opportunity for men and women in the Defence Forces, including the reserve Defence Force, and to the full participation of women in all aspects of Defence Forces' activities.
Women are eligible for service in the Army, Air Corps, Naval Service and in the reserve Defence Force and to compete for promotion on an equal basis and under the same general conditions as those which apply to men. Female officers are generally being promoted at the same stage in their career as male officers. All female personnel undergo the same training and receive the same military education as their male counterparts.
The military authorities advise that the trend for general service recruitment has been that 9% of all applicants have been female and that on average 9% of enlistment has 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 the pattern will change to any great degree. Some 15.4% of applicants for the 2003 cadetship competition were female. Some 15.5% of successful candidates were female.
Under the terms of the Employment Equality Act 1998, the Defence Forces are prohibited from operating recruitment policies that discriminate on grounds of gender.
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", and that height requirement now also applies to male recruits.
The Defence Forces actively encourage female applicants, for example, by: (a) advertising — where possible, all graphical advertisements and booklets produced for the Defence Forces show both male and female personnel and emphasise that all applicants are assessed on an equal basis; (b) recruitment fairs — stands at recruiting fairs are generally staffed by male and female personnel; and (c) visits to schools — when the Defence Forces are invited to give talks at all female or at mixed schools, every effort is made to have a female speaker.
Over the past six years, the strength of female personnel in the Defence Forces has grown from 244 at the end of 1997 to 484 at the end of 2003. In percentage terms that represents an increase from 2.11% to 4.61% of total strength.
The strength of females by rank in the Defence Forces as at the end of April 2004 is provided in the form of a tabular statement which I propose to circulate in the Official Report.
|
LtGen |
MajGen |
BrigGen |
Col |
LtCol |
Comdt |
Capt |
Lt |
TotalOffrs |
Sm |
BQMS |
Cs |
CQMS |
Sgts |
Cpls |
Total NCOs |
Ptes |
Cadets |
Total |
|
|
Army |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
13 |
30 |
31 |
75 |
0 |
0 |
3 |
1 |
10 |
89 |
103 |
213 |
14 |
405 |
|
Air Corps |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
2 |
3 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
7 |
8 |
9 |
1 |
21 |
|
Naval Service |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
14 |
16 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
2 |
43 |
5 |
66 |
