Defence Matters: Statements Seanad Éireann — 2026-02-25 ============================================================ Robbie Gallagher (FF), Labour Panel I was about to say that; the Chair beat me to it. Tá fáilte roimh an Aire ar ais chuig an Teach seo inniu. The Minister is very welcome back to the House this afternoon for this very timely debate in relation to our Defence Forces and the defence of our country. Indeed, I would like to commence where the Minister left off and acknowledge and thank the men and women of the Defence Forces for the fantastic service they give to this country. We are deeply proud that they act on our behalf and I would like to thank them for that service. As the Minister outlined, unfortunately, the world we live in today is a very difficult place. It is a very unpredictable world with the geopolitical situation changing almost on a daily basis. With that come challenges for us in relation to the new reality that exists out there when it comes to the defence of our people and the defence of our land. With that in mind, I would like to make a couple of points that have been brought into stark realisation now by the fact that come July, we will take up the EU Presidency and that will bring challenges to our country and to our Defence Forces generally. As the poet John Donne once said, "No man is an island". No person is an island and when it comes to defence, no country in the world can totally and confidently defend itself 100% without the co-operation of its neighbours and without the co-operation of our EU colleagues as well, and we are no different in that regard. There has to be a certain realisation brought to that point. In relation to the Defence Forces generally, I welcome the fact that we have made some progress with regard to recruitment. Senator Wilson alluded to that fact in his contribution. The figures are encouraging and it is positive but we are coming from a very low base and we have to be realistic in that regard. We have hopefully turned the corner, but we have a long road ahead of us. While I welcome the recent recruitment campaigns, which have been modernised now to new entry development, greater focus has been and needs to be ramped up, if you like, in relation to retention as well. It is good that the Government realises we have a lot of work to do and there are challenges ahead. We need to address those to get our Defence Forces up to the level we need them to be and the quicker we get there, the better. I have a couple of specific questions in the short time I have left. The Minister mentioned the anti-drone equipment in her contribution. What exactly will that allow us to do? I have a couple of questions in relation to the retention piece, one of which is with regard to the economic climate we are in with full employment and the many different choices people have out there. The recent recruitment for cadetships launched this year and, unfortunately, when we break down the salaries on offer, that is, €26,000 for the first year and €28,000 for the second year, it is still below the minimum wage. We need to and should be doing better in that regard. I would like to get the Minister's comments on that. She talked about and referenced the new detailed implementation plan for the Report of the Commission on the Defence Forces, which was launched back in 2023. It had something like 130 recommendations. I note recently in February of this year that 43 new recommendations have been alluded to with extended timeframes for those. What kind of consultation was there in relation to those? How much further are we pushing out the deadlines in relation to those? I thank the Cathaoirleach for his latitude. --- 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/2026-02-25/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:41+00:00 Sitting date: 2026-02-25