Defence Forces
Dail Éireann — 2025-12-16
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Matt Carthy (SF), Cavan-Monaghan

The difficulty is that the Minister's speech reflects, virtually verbatim, what we heard this time last year from the then Minister. There is no issue with applications or expressions of interest. We have seen that time and again. People are interested in the prospect of joining the Defence Forces. The difficulty is bringing them to the point when they are inducted and ensuring they are retained within the Defence Forces. Across the board, the Government does not have the ambition at the start or the policies at the end.
The difficulty is that the members of the Defence Forces have been telling us all, and specifically the Government, the measures that are required to actually address the retention and recruitment crisis we have been facing.
Has the Minister met with the Defence Forces' representative organisations? As a result of those meetings, if they took place, are there any new measures that the Minister now plans to bring forward?

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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