I thank the Minister of State for being here this morning. The Government, including the Minister for Defence, has clearly stated its intention to increase the strength of the Defence Forces, which is badly needed and very welcome. At the end of 2025, there were 7,756 personnel in our Defence Forces, an increase of 200 on the previous 12 months. It is great to see that trajectory. In response to a recent parliamentary question I submitted, the Minister stated her intention to increase the strength of the Defence Forces by 850 in 2026. Again, that is very welcome. We all know the importance of the Defence Forces and of ensuring they are fully resourced. They play a critical role in our national security. We are renowned internationally for our peacekeeping role. Every branch of the Defence Forces, such as the Air Corps, plays a critical role in many operations, such as humanitarian operations. In this regard, I want to particularly mention the essential role of the Naval Service, whose headquarters are based close to my own constituency in Cork, in our maritime security, which is receiving increasing attention given the importance of protecting our sub-sea utilities and infrastructure. We all agree we need to increase the strength of our Defence Forces. I want to outline this morning a troubling communication I received from an individual who applied to join the Defence Forces and the difficulties they encountered in that regard over the past nine months or so. They applied initially in July of 2025, took an aptitude test in August and a fitness test in November but nine months on that individual has still not heard whether they will be allowed to join. This is not consistent with the thinking of a Government that says it is a top priority to increase the strength of our Defence Forces. We need an efficient and fair recruitment process that encourages individuals to apply and ensures they are communicated with and updated on their application status. This is very concerning and we need to show our genuine commitment to strengthening the Defence Forces. Hearing about situations like this where individuals are facing these kinds of difficulties in the application process, this needs to be reviewed urgently. Why would somebody put themselves through that? We have individuals in this country who are absolutely determined to have a career in the Defence Forces and, of course, they will stay the course, but there are others who may be marginally considering a career and if we have a recruitment process that does not stand up to scrutiny, is not transparent or efficient, does not keep them informed and is not user-friendly, we will not achieve the numbers we should for recruitment to the Defence Forces. I put it to the Minister of State that this needs to be reviewed. It has taken far too long from the date of application to the point of induction into the Defence Forces. As I said, if this is a genuine commitment of this Government, which I believe it is, we need to review this system urgently so that we put a recruitment process in place that will genuinely achieve the kind of numbers we want and which our Defence Forces and citizens deserve as regards the strength of the overall force.

Sentiment score: 0.42

I thank the Minister of State for outlining the facts. To reiterate, the increase in personnel in the Defence Forces is very welcome, with 780 inductions in 2025. That brought an overall net increase of 200 in the Defence Forces complement, which is welcome. The intention to have 850 inductions this year is also very welcome. However, I repeat what I said earlier about the importance of having a fair and user-friendly application process in place. When you look at the stages of that process outlined in the reply, from the shortlisting to the psychometric testing and so on, it appears as if it is reasonable up to the point of the vetting. It takes maybe three months to get to the point of vetting and, from there on, there can be a delay of anything up to nine months. That is the area on which I ask for some focus. Of course, I understand the importance of vetting, but I do not see why it should take nine months to carry out that vetting process. I accept that nine months is at the upper end but, at the same time, that is probably the period where people feel the process is letting them down and where they are not receiving any communication, updates or contact. People have alternatives in life. Thankfully, we are a country with high standards of education and people have alternative careers; we have a strong economy. If we genuinely want to encourage people into our Defence Forces, we have to have a system in place that works for them, is user-friendly and efficient and brings them from the point of application to the point of induction as quickly as possible. We all know the importance of ensuring we meet our targets, as a Government, in increasing the number personnel. The issue of vetting in particular is one that needs to be reviewed, and I ask the Minister of State to convey that message back to the Minister for Defence, Deputy McEntee.

Sentiment score: 0.34