Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 11 December 2025
303. Deputy William Aird asked the Minister for Defence if her Department will provide details of the efforts made since 2022 to increase the technical and radar operator/controller manpower levels within the Irish Defence Forces; and the success which have achieved; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [71256/25]
View answerThe Government are committed to taking measures to improve recruitment and retention within the Defence Forces. Government has introduced a number of key enabling measures and improvements to the overall benefits package to drive recruitment and support the retention of specialists in the Defence Forces. These include an increase in recruitment age to 39 years for those roles that had a recruitment age below that, and to 50 years for Direct Entry Specialists. The mandatory retirement age has been increased to 62. Private secondary healthcare has been rolled out to all PDF members and the provisions of the Working Time Directive have been extended across the Defence Forces, subject to certain exemptions. The Patrol Duty allowance payable to Naval Service personnel at sea has been doubled after ten days at sea in a calendar year and the Naval Service tax credit has been extended for a further five years while a Technical Pay 2-6 review has been completed and implemented and is targeted at specialist personnel. The service commitment scheme currently in place for pilots in the Air Corps has been extended to Air Traffic Control personnel. These are in addition to the extensive education and training opportunities provided to all personnel.
Challenges exist in recruiting and retaining certain specialists due to competing demands for such specialists in other sectors at a time of effective full employment and economic buoyancy.
In addition to traditional recruitment, a number of measures have been introduced aimed at restoring and retaining capacity and boosting specialist numbers. These include an ongoing scheme which permits former personnel with specialist skills to re-enter the Permanent Defence Force (PDF). In 2025, as of the 31 October, this has resulted in 27 re-enlistments and 2 Officers being recommissioned.
Direct Entry is utilised in the recruitment of specialists. The Defence Forces are currently accepting Direct Entry applications for 9 ongoing competitions, 8 of which are specific to the Naval Service and include a competition for Radio Radar Technicians. Total inductions arising from these competitions as of the 31 October of this year stands at 26 which represents a marked increase on previous years and gives significant cause for optimism.
In addition, new competitions have been introduced in recent years such as those for Aircraft Maintenance Technicians, Aeronautical Engineer Officer and a new cadetship competition stream for Air Traffic Controllers which has resulted in the induction of 3 cadets in both 2024 and 2025 respectively. An additional new competition for Direct Entry Air Traffic Controllers is currently in the final stages of preparation.
Whilst some challenges undoubtedly remain, significant progress has been made in the recruitment and retention of specialists and technicians and the allocation of record levels of expenditure to the Defence sector coupled with the ongoing initiatives I have outlined here, is illustrative of my intent in this regard.
