Defence Forces: Motion Seanad Éireann — 2026-01-21 ============================================================ Seán Kyne (FG), Cultural and Educational Panel I welcome the Minister to the Chamber and congratulate her on her appointment. We have had nearly 50 Ministers for Defence and Deputy McEntee is the first female Minister for Defence. I congratulate her personally and politically on that. I thank my colleagues in Fianna Fáil for tabling this motion. I am sure Senator Craughwell knows that if his group tabled a motion, its members would also have 16 minutes on this or any other topic they wished to pursue. Senator Wilson spoke about today's world. It is safe to say today's world has gone a bit mad. There were always incidents but, for the first time in a long time, it has become politically unstable in areas close to us in the Continent of Europe. One often hears pub talk and people asking why we need an Army. If anything happened in this country, these people would be the first on social media to say we do not have the capabilities or we should have done more and invested more. We have to take seriously the changed political circumstances across the world. I welcome, first of all, the commissioning of the policy in relation to the renewal of the Defence Forces and now the level of ambition 2 and the movement, we hope, to level of ambition 3 with continued investment over the coming years. We had an interesting visit to Gormanston Camp, County Meath, a number of months ago as members of the defence and national security committee. It is great to see the level of investment because recruits and trainees deserve the very best of facilities. It is good to see the investment visible on the ground. It will be impressive. It is, I suppose, halfway through or whatever. There is more planned work needed but it is certainly something that will be fitting for our new recruits there. We heard from officers and we have seen that the numbers are increasing, and that is to be welcomed. According to the official figures, we are below the establishment strength but the numbers of discharges have reduced somewhat since 2022. That is to be welcomed. If you look at the number of recruits serving in 2020 after 24 months, we had 170 in the Army, 36 in the Naval Service and none in the Air Corps, making a total of 206. In 2023, the comparable figures were 244 in the Army, 57 in the Naval Service, ten in the Air Corps and a total of 311. In 2024, after 24 months, the figures were 142 in the Army, 45 in the Naval Service, seven in the Air Corps and a total of 194. We would expect to see those figures increasing with the number of recruits that have come in. Certainly, it is welcome that there is that level of interest. That level of interest does not happen by accident because there have been, following decisions by the Government, increasing budgets for the Department of Defence. During the downturn, defence was treated like every other Department whereby Ministers' first decision was to cut their budgets. That was the requirement - to cut budgets and to cut expenditure. Over the years we have seen the level of expenditure across all Departments increase, and so too for the Department of Defence. That is certainly very welcome indeed. Attrition rates and the numbers that have to buy themselves out of the Army was something that has been brought up. That has been somewhat stabilised and we have seen overall staffing levels in the Defence Forces increased. As I said, it is not by accident. There has been progress on pay, as well as the extension of the existing service commitment scheme for Air Corps pilots to air traffic controllers personnel, an increase in the mandatory retirement age to 62, the extension of private healthcare, the provision of fitness training and sports facilities, as we have seen in Gormanston and elsewhere, and progress on the Defence Forces infrastructure development plan with the highest level of financial resources in the State's history. All of that is welcome in leading to a more positive atmosphere for recruits. We have a long-standing tradition of overseas deployment. From talking to people, both in these Houses and elsewhere, it is a huge honour and something that attracts recruits to the Irish Defence Forces. We have that proud record, notwithstanding the decisions in relation to UNIFIL as well. I was watching online a former UK Secretary of Defence talk of the hollowing out of defence forces over 20 or 30 years, even in the UK, . It is something that perhaps Europe was never, or certainly since the end of the Cold War was not, investing sufficient in our defence and that level of co-operation which is absolutely needed. We have seen the threats that are going on which very few countries on their own in Europe would be able to withstand without the support of others as well. We have to be able to stand on our own two feet or be seen to do it. I welcome the level of investment but there is a lot more that needs to be done. The Minister has the ambition and the Government, through the commission on renewal, has the blueprint in relation to that and the budget to go with it. --- 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