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.

I thank Senator McGrath for raising this important matter and for giving me the opportunity to reply. I begin by reiterating the Government's strong commitment to boosting recruitment to and supporting the retention of personnel in the Defence Forces. Military authorities have advised that the strength of the Permanent Defence Force stood at 7,778 as of 31 March, the latest date for which this figure is available. Last year saw an increase in the overall strength of the Permanent Defence Force by almost 200 personnel, which was facilitated by the achievement of a total of 790 inductions during 2025, the highest figure in 20 years. We want to build on the growth achieved in 2025 and have set a target of 850 inductions to the Permanent Defence Force for 2026. The total number of applications for careers in the Permanent Defence Force exceeded 16,500, and more than 7,000 were received by the end of March of this year. Increases in application numbers and the overall strength of the Permanent Defence Force demonstrate that the key enabling measures which the Government has introduced to support and drive Defence Forces recruitment and retention are yielding positive results.

On the specific matter of the recruitment process for the Defence Forces, the military authorities have advised that the process of candidates being recruited to the Permanent Defence Force comprises several stages, which include shortlisting, psychometric assessments, fitness and interview, medical, Garda vetting and security clearance, offer and attestation. It should be noted that some candidates may be subject to fewer or additional stages of the process, depending on the specific competition for which they have applied, but the majority of candidates follow the process as outlined.

A new candidate management system, Resumo, was introduced in December, making the process easier for applicants. Candidates now receive automated correspondence at all stages of the process to maximize engagement and ensure they are kept informed of the status of their application. My written reply contains a list of overall average times of progression by stage for all general service recruitment candidates who applied in quarter 1 of 2026. The Deputy has it there in the reply, so I do not need to go through the table. It gives the average number of days for each stage of the process.

The military authorities have informed me that the security clearance process can take anything from six weeks to nine months for candidates, depending on a variety of factors, such as their previous country or countries of residence, how many addresses they have lived at, prior interactions with police or security services and the speed at which foreign authorities respond to requests, to name just some of the complexities.

Recruitment to the Defence Forces remains open and ongoing via a wide range of pathways, including general service recruitment, re-entry schemes and multiple direct entry competitions for specialist roles. A range of new recruitment competition streams have successfully launched in recent years and include new competitions for air traffic controller cadetships, aircraft maintenance technicians, grooms in the Equitation School and dental nurses. Additional new competitions for chefs, communications and information services or cyber roles, medical officers and aircraft maintenance technicians have all launched in recent weeks. The 2026 cadetship competitions closed in March, with over 2,800 applications received.

The key enabling measures include increases in the maximum ages of recruitment and retirement respectively, the extension of private and secondary healthcare to all personnel, and the application of the provisions of the working time directive across the Defence Forces, subject to certain exemptions. I can come back and finish that later.

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.

To conclude on some of the key enabling measures that we have introduced for recruitment and retention, we have also increased the patrol duty allowance payable to Naval Service personnel at sea, which has been doubled after ten days at sea in a calendar year. We have seen the extension of the Naval Service tax credit for a further five years, the extension of the service commitment scheme for pilots in the Air Corps and air traffic control personnel, and we have seen engagement of external expertise to support recruitment in the Naval Service. To support recruitment and the implementation of related measures, budget 2026 has provided a record allocation of €1.49 billion to the defence sector, an increase of €145 million over 2025.

I hear what the Deputy is saying about vetting but, whether it is with the Defence Forces, people who are applying to An Garda Síochána or those applying for citizenship, the timelines for some parts of vetting are outside of our control. As I said, if people have lived at multiple addresses or in multiple countries, awaiting replies and clearance on vetting from other jurisdictions outside our control can sometimes lead to delays which, unfortunately, we cannot control.