Defence Forces
Dail Éireann — 2025-12-16
============================================================

Helen McEntee (FG), Meath East

We all agree that more needs to be done and I do not think the Government is saying anything to the contrary. It is clear that there continues to be a very strong interest in a career in the Defence Forces with further growth this year. Let us look at the figures. A total of 14,879 applications have been received this year, up to the end of October. The most important thing that I need to focus on now is making sure that as many of those as possible get into training and that we retain as many of them as possible.
We have introduced a range of key enabling measures to support and drive Defence Forces recruitment and retention, working closely with the Defence Forces. These include increases in the maximum ages of recruitment and retirement, the extension of private secondary healthcare to all personnel and the application of the provisions of the working time directive across the Defence Forces, subject to certain exemptions. The patrol duty allowance payable to Naval Service personnel at sea has been doubled after ten days at sea in a calendar year, while the Naval Service tax credit has been extended for a further five years. There has also been significant progress on pay with all personnel benefiting from a further pay award made in August of this year. Money has been provided through the capital budget.
Significant work has already been done to try to ensure that the terms and conditions are improving for our members. There is a plan that has been worked through with the Defence Forces and my Department to set out exactly how we are going to achieve those targets.
It is not going to be straightforward or easy. I accept that. I am absolutely committed to doing everything I can.

---

Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted.

Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2025-12-16/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:28+00:00
Sitting date: 2025-12-16