Defence Forces
Dail Éireann — 2026-05-13
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Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (SF), Cork South-Central

There is a lot of talk at the minute and a shared desire across all sides of this House to ensure we invest in our Defence Forces. The Defence Forces have been profoundly neglected and that needs to be addressed. As far as I am concerned, Ireland should be strong in neutrality and strong in defence; both things go together.
We hear a lot of big announcements from the Minister but, unfortunately, the reality is that big talk is not going to put feet inside the barracks door. Referring back to the last debate the Minister of State had on the various targets being set and Government's desire to hit those targets, the reality is there is not a hope in the wide earthly world that the Defence Forces will meet the target of 11,000 permanent personnel by 2028. That is under level of ambition 2. It is not going to be reached. At the minute, we are almost 4,000 personnel short of that. There is not a hope that this gap will be made up. We will be lucky to reach the established strength of 9,400. We will be extremely lucky to hit that target.
There is not a hope we are reaching 11,000. The reality is that for all the big announcements and so on, the ultimate test of whether we are going to be able to recruit and retain enough personnel is whether we are showing enough respect for the greatest asset of the Defence Forces, that is, the men and women of the Defence Forces. Against the backdrop of these big announcements, the European Committee on Social Rights has found that the Irish Government is in breach of the European Social Charter because of failing to implement the working time directive. The central point of that is that the Irish Government is refusing still to define what the working day is and what it means in terms of hours and duties. It keeps telling us this is complex but it has been dealing with it for years. If you refuse to define what the working day is, that has obvious implications for ensuring that overtime is counted, recorded and paid. We can go through the findings of the European social committee in relation to this, which found against the Irish Government. There are serious issues in respect of rest periods, ensuring that men and women in the Defence Forces get the daily rest period they are entitled to, that the average working time including overtime is not meant to exceed 48 hours, as well as various other issues. This is ultimately leading to Defence Forces personnel not getting enough payment for the work they are doing. They are being underpaid for their overtime.
There are also very simple things that could be resolved in respect of when people are in barracks and on rest periods. Basic things such as gym equipment, TV subscriptions and Wi-Fi are meant to be in place in all of these 24-hour duty locations. They are simple things that the Government could easily resolve at very limited cost. These items need to be addressed. There has been some progress on the implementation of the working time directive, but until the working day is defined, until we get to grips with that, and the Government has been dealing with it for over three years, we are still going to have issues of people being underpaid and their overtime not being recognised. This is leading to Defence Forces personnel not feeling valued. They are working in challenging circumstances, with very lengthy periods of work and lengthy and onerous periods of duty. If they are not shown the respect they ought to be in ensuring this is properly compensated, this will contribute to the recruitment and retention crisis that continues in the Defence Forces.

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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