Defence Forces
Dail Éireann — 2025-12-16
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Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (SF), Cork South-Central

The Minister said a while ago that she was going to meet all the representative organisations. I welcome that and hope that includes not only those for the Permanent Defence Force but also those for the Reserve Defence Force and the veterans' organisations. I am sure RACO will raise this issue with the Minister. The information she gave was in the longer run, when they are qualified and reach a certain rank. The issue here is at entry level. A cadet who joins - up to the age of 39 - earns €25,748 annually, or approximately €493 per week. A recruit in the enlisted ranks earns €540 per week in the first ten weeks, increasing to €617 for the following 16 weeks, and, after approximately six months, €860 per week. While it is obviously welcome that recruit pay has increased in general terms cadets' entry pay has not kept pace and they earn significantly less than their enlisted counterparts for the duration of a multiyear training programme. That anomaly needs to be considered.

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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