Ceisteanna ó na Comhaltaí Eile - Other Members’ Questions
Dail Éireann — 2026-07-02
============================================================

Seán Ó Fearghaíl (FF), Kildare South

People with far greater knowledge than I have are deeply sceptical about the number of applications that are being shown, but anyway. I want to go back to that comparison with the health service because, for me, it raises the legitimate question of whether we should be looking overseas to secure recruits. If we were to do so, we should be looking at countries where Irish Aid is active and where we could recruit members to the Permanent Defence Force on fixed-term contracts to allow us achieve the strength level required in our Defence Forces to fulfil their mandate.
Many national armed forces make formal or informal provisions to recruit non-nationals. Reasons vary, including historical regimental practice, manpower shortfalls, diaspora links or pathways to citizenship, but the result is the same: foreigners in regular state militaries. The French Foreign Legion, for example, offers a five-year contract, I understand. It would be of dual benefit for such a foreign recruitment process, delivering, as it would if linked to Irish Aid, necessary numbers for our own forces and providing a degree of financial support for families coping with war and the ravages of climate change in disadvantaged countries.

---

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/dail/2026-07-02/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-27T06:52:14+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-07-02