Defence Forces 'may never return to intended strength'

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The body representing Defence Forces Officer grades warns that Covid-19 restrictions will exacerbate matters, as they will significantly affect the ability to conduct induction training in the short to medium term

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The body representing Defence Forces Officer grades has warned that if immediate, significant retention initiatives are not implemented, the Defence Forces will not only never return to its target strength of 9,500, but will continue to decline.

At the end of April, the Army had 6,867 members, the Naval Service had 892, while the Air Corps had 726. There are currently 1,015 vacancies, up from 327 at the end of 2017. RACO criticises the publication last Friday of the Parliamentary Budget Office paper on recruitment, retention and remuneration in the the Defence Forces, saying it had relied on the use of an outdated data up to 2017 to brief Oireachtas members.

As recently as last week, the Minister with Responsibility for Defence Paul Kehoe pledged to restore the Defence Forces to a minimum strength of 9,500 personnel.

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What do we want an army for anyway I think it’s just to keep unemployment down... such a waste of taxpayers money

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