Defence Forces: Motion Seanad Éireann — 2026-01-21 ============================================================ Gerard P. Craughwell (IND), Labour Panel I welcome the Minister to the House. I speak to her as a former member of the Defence Forces and as a nominee of PDFORRA, RACO and the security services in general. The current allowable strength of the Defence Forces is 9,739, all ranks, across all services - Army, Air Corps and Naval Service. The actual strength of the forces on 31 December 2025 was 7,700, which is 2,039 personnel, or 21%, below strength. The net increase in strength from 31 December 2024 to 31 December 2025 was 143 personnel. These facts are alarming against the background of global and European geopolitical insecurity and turmoil. This is not something that political Ireland or the Department of Defence should be proud of. The 2022 Commission on the Defence Forces recommended a target strength of the Defence Forces of 11,500 by 2028. I believe in a recent briefing from the Department, the Minister was told that, with the slow rate of increase, it would take five years to reach 9,739 and up to ten years to reach 11,500, the targeted strength. This suggests it will be 2035 at the earliest when the target will be achieved. Both suggested dates are fanciful in the extreme. In recent years, in order to drive recruitment, pay rates for initial entrants have been significantly increased for newly commissioned officers and private soldier recruits on finishing initial training. Retention of middle-ranking personnel, commissioned and non-commissioned, is the lifeblood of the organisation. These inflated pay rates for new entrants have substantially narrowed the gap between top pay for private soldiers and the maximum rates for corporals and sergeants, the mid-ranking personnel the forces are most eager to retain. Similarly, with commissioned officers, front-loading the pay of second lieutenants and lieutenants significantly reduced the pay differential between the captains and commandants and their maximum rate. Middle-ranking captains, commandants, corporals and sergeants, the ones most needed to be retained in service, are now disincentivised due to the sleight of hand in raising the most junior ranks' pay to the disadvantage of ranks immediately above them. The starting salary for an officer cadet is €25,493. When we bear in mind we are trying to attract people, some of whom are married, €25,000 does not exactly do it. The first point on the scale for a commissioned officer is approximately €31,000. The introduction, as my colleagues pointed out, of the single pension Act in 2013 proves that one size does not fit all. Without going into great detail, the single pension Act is now severely impacting all front-line services, as members of the Defence Forces, An Garda Síochána, the Prison Service, ambulance service and fire service are all leaving because there is no pension entitlement at the end of the day. Pension entitlement was one of the things that drove retention in the Defence Forces - you served your 21 years and you were well looked after with a decent pension. That is gone, and we are losing people because of it. I ask the Minister to raise this with the Minister for Finance. Political Ireland has to take control and stop letting the civil servants tell us what to do. On 29 January, the Government, upon the nomination of the Taoiseach, formally appointed Ministers of State. This is a matter causing some concern in the wider public. There is a Minister of State in the Department of the Taoiseach, the Department of foreign affairs with special responsibility for European affairs and, it states, at the Department of Defence. Will the Minister advise what statutory status the Minister of State has with respect to defence? Anybody I speak to is unsure. The Minister of State makes lots of statements and speeches but what statutory role does the junior Minister have? All Irish Ministers, senior and junior, make pronouncements, verbal and written, and state simultaneously that Ireland is not politically neutral but militarily neutral. In customary international law, where the rules and obligations of neutrality are codified, there is no such subdivision of neutrality. Either a state is neutral or non-aligned or it is part of an alliance. Where in customary international law is such a subdivision of neutrality, as articulated by Ireland's senior and junior Ministers, specifically codified or cited? It is confusing to hear people talking about political neutrality and military neutrality. There is no such thing. You are either neutral or you are not. Government Ministers repeatedly talk about the €1.7 billion in the defence budget. Vote 35 deals with pensions and Vote 36 is the normal pay and other running costs of the Defence Forces. Some 73% of Vote 36 is to be expended on pay and allowances, traditionally. The cost of recurring expenditure on maintenance of lands, utilities, fuel, spare parts, is borne by the remaining 27%, along with the cost of attaining and maintaining operational capability, the core business of the Defence Forces. What portion of this paltry 27% of Vote 36 is actually allocated in 2026 for the said operational capability such as the purchase of primary radar, anti-drone equipment, maritime sonar, arms and ammunition, armoured and specialised vehicles and allied and associated drivers? We are talking about buying primary radar. If we bought it today, it would not be operational until 2028 and we have nobody able to use it. If we see something in our sky, what will we do? Will we send a strongly worded letter on headed paper up to the pilot who is in our airspace and say "Please leave us"? This is outrageous. Similarly with sonar, we do not have people who can use or interpret sonar. How long will it take to train them if and when we buy it? I have concerns about that. We heard lots of talk in recent times about the multi-role vessel, MRV, the Naval Service was to buy. Where is it? Is buying it still on the cards? I am also deeply concerned about our procurement from one state alone. I will have something to say about that in the near future. It is most peculiar that all procurement in defence is coming from one source only. --- 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/seanad/2026-01-21/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:31+00:00 Sitting date: 2026-01-21