Defence Matters: Statements Seanad Éireann — 2026-02-25 ============================================================ Joe O'Reilly (FG), Labour Panel I welcome the Minister of State. As I welcome him, I acknowledge that we recently had a good trip together around schools in Cavan where he did a good presentation on Ireland’s Presidency of the EU and its implications. It is important we engage our young people in the democratic process. I also acknowledge the proactive approach of the Minister, Deputy McEntee, in this Ministry and the leadership she is giving on defence. There are a number of heartening comments in her statement. I will allude to them and then I will make some general observations. The capital funding allocation has increased by €159 million to €300 million in 2026, an increase of 113%. It was €159 million in 2022. The current non-pay allocation has increased by €127 million to almost €277 million in 2026, an increase of 84%. The current pay funding allocation has increased by €52 million – this is an important matter I will come to it in a moment - to almost €598 million in 2026, an increase of 10%. Those are heartening and necessary increases. If you do not put your money where your mouth is in this debate, it is a facade. It is important we have the capital and pay increases. There are a number of things needed in the Defence Forces. Recruitment is improving but it needs to improve a lot more. That was alluded to by Senator Wilson. Looking at numbers, we need to increase them considerably. We need another 1,500 at minimum and an additional 300 for this year. It is important to get recruitment but that will only be achieved if it is attractive. While these are patriotic people by definition, they cannot be expected to work for nothing or for comparatively low wages. It is important their pay improves. There is room for improvement on their medical insurance. I ask the Minister of State to respond or take note on that. We could do more to provide medical insurance for them. Non-commissioned officers and senior non-commissioned officers need an extra pay increase. There are imaginative ways being looked at to do that. It could be a signing-on bonus or a long service increment. That matter is under discussion at the moment. The Minister of State might provide an update on whether we are making progress in that regard. It is important. The pay element is a huge. As well as the national pay agreement, we have to use imaginative methods to make it attractive to join our Defence Forces. Both recruitment and human resources approaches to recruitment have improved. All of that is good. While the numbers have increased by up to 200 recently, it is not enough. They must increase to 9,500. We need to improve pay and conditions as well as career opportunities and development. I welcome the maritime strategy. To protect underground cables, it is important that we collaborate with the UK and France. Other countries have as much a vested interest in these underground cables as we do. Senator Wilson made a good point earlier about looking to industry and the people who own the cables to make a contribution, if that is needed. Young Fine Gael produced a defence strategy recently in which it calls for €50 million to be spent on new innovation developments. It seeks a €50 million defence innovation fund to look at new technologies to deal with cybercrime, cyberattacks and the issue of the underground cables, etc. We need innovation. I welcome Young Fine Gael making that request. It should be the case. We need a well-resourced army. We also need to pay attention to our Reserve Defence Force, which is strong in my area. I want to see it supported. In his response, I ask the Minister of State to comment on the RDF and where we are going with it. In summary----- --- 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