Defence Forces
Dail Éireann — 2026-05-13
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Niall Collins (FF), Limerick County

I thank Senator McGrath for raising this important matter and for giving me the opportunity to reply. I begin by reiterating the Government's strong commitment to boosting recruitment to and supporting the retention of personnel in the Defence Forces. Military authorities have advised that the strength of the Permanent Defence Force stood at 7,778 as of 31 March, the latest date for which this figure is available. Last year saw an increase in the overall strength of the Permanent Defence Force by almost 200 personnel, which was facilitated by the achievement of a total of 790 inductions during 2025, the highest figure in 20 years. We want to build on the growth achieved in 2025 and have set a target of 850 inductions to the Permanent Defence Force for 2026. The total number of applications for careers in the Permanent Defence Force exceeded 16,500, and more than 7,000 were received by the end of March of this year. Increases in application numbers and the overall strength of the Permanent Defence Force demonstrate that the key enabling measures which the Government has introduced to support and drive Defence Forces recruitment and retention are yielding positive results.
On the specific matter of the recruitment process for the Defence Forces, the military authorities have advised that the process of candidates being recruited to the Permanent Defence Force comprises several stages, which include shortlisting, psychometric assessments, fitness and interview, medical, Garda vetting and security clearance, offer and attestation. It should be noted that some candidates may be subject to fewer or additional stages of the process, depending on the specific competition for which they have applied, but the majority of candidates follow the process as outlined.
A new candidate management system, Resumo, was introduced in December, making the process easier for applicants. Candidates now receive automated correspondence at all stages of the process to maximize engagement and ensure they are kept informed of the status of their application. My written reply contains a list of overall average times of progression by stage for all general service recruitment candidates who applied in quarter 1 of 2026. The Deputy has it there in the reply, so I do not need to go through the table. It gives the average number of days for each stage of the process.
The military authorities have informed me that the security clearance process can take anything from six weeks to nine months for candidates, depending on a variety of factors, such as their previous country or countries of residence, how many addresses they have lived at, prior interactions with police or security services and the speed at which foreign authorities respond to requests, to name just some of the complexities.
Recruitment to the Defence Forces remains open and ongoing via a wide range of pathways, including general service recruitment, re-entry schemes and multiple direct entry competitions for specialist roles. A range of new recruitment competition streams have successfully launched in recent years and include new competitions for air traffic controller cadetships, aircraft maintenance technicians, grooms in the Equitation School and dental nurses. Additional new competitions for chefs, communications and information services or cyber roles, medical officers and aircraft maintenance technicians have all launched in recent weeks. The 2026 cadetship competitions closed in March, with over 2,800 applications received.
The key enabling measures include increases in the maximum ages of recruitment and retirement respectively, the extension of private and secondary healthcare to all personnel, and the application of the provisions of the working time directive across the Defence Forces, subject to certain exemptions. I can come back and finish that later.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-05-13/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-09-14T01:01:03+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-05-13