Paul Donnelly
Question:217. Deputy Paul Donnelly asked the Minister for Defence the number of trained pilots, aircrew and technical staff assigned to each aircraft type within the Air Corps; and the current vacancy rates. [31804/26]
View answerThursday, 30 April 2026
Questions (217)
Written answers
My officials have requested the information sought by the Deputy from the military authorities, and subject to any operational and security related concerns, I will follow up with the details in due course.
The following deferred reply was received under Standing Orders.
I refer to the above Parliamentary Question requesting the number of trained pilots, aircrew and technical staff assigned to each aircraft type within the Air Corps; and the current vacancy rates.
As indicated in my reply, the information sought was not readily available and it was for that reason that I provided a deferred response. My officials having consulted with the military authorities have advised that specific details on current staffing levels in operational Squadrons of the Air Corps are not released for operational security reasons.
That being said, I would like to reassure you that increasing and bolstering staffing levels across the Defence Forces is a key priority for me as Minister for Defence. A range of measures have been undertaken to tackle recruitment and retention challenges over the last number of years. As a result, we have seen a stabilisation and expansion in the strength of the Permanent Defence Force since 2024. The strength of the Air Corps, as at 30 April 2026, was 777 personnel out of an establishment of 886 personnel.
There are a number of Air Corps specific initiatives currently underway to counter ongoing staffing challenges, including:
• A General Service recruitment competition specifically for the Air Corps remains open. In 2025, a total of 60 General Service Recruits were inducted, in comparison to 46 during 2024. As of the 30 April 2026, there have been 13 inductions for General Service Recruits into the Air Corps.
• A competition for Aircraft Maintenance Technicians (AMT’s) closed in July 2025 with 127 applications received. 8 candidates were successfully inducted in October 2025.
• A new Direct Entry competition (Aeronautical Engineer Officer) resulted in 5 inductions in 2024.
• A 2024 cadetship competition stream for Air Traffic Controllers was well received and 3 cadets were inducted.
• The 2025 Cadetship competition led to the induction of 7 Pilots and 3 ATC Cadets respectively.
• A new competition for Direct Entry Air Traffic Controllers is currently being progressed.
• 13 pilots and 1 Air Traffic Controller have been re-commissioned since October 2019 and 18 AC Personnel have re-enlisted since 2020.
• The maximum recruitment age for Direct Entry Officer specialists has been increased to 50 years.
• 40 applicants have availed of the Air Corps Service Commitment Scheme: from the 2019 to the 2026 Scheme.
• The service commitment scheme is being extended to qualified Air Traffic Control personnel, 11 applicants have availed of this scheme.
A draft Strategic Workforce Plan prepared by the Defence Forces has recently been submitted to me for consideration. The draft plan, recommendations, and modelling tool with timelines will be considered over the coming weeks. As the Deputy will be aware, the aim of this process is to provide a pathway to the achievement of an overall Permanent Defence Forces strength of 11,500, inclusive of civilian personnel, commensurate with Level of Ambition 2 as set out in the Detailed Implementation Plan for the Report of the Commission on the Defence Forces. Strategic Workforce Planning is effectively a continuous pro-active process that aligns the needs of each of the three services with the future talent required.
Underpinning these and other measures, I ensured that Budget 2026 provided a record allocation of €1.49 billion for the Defence Sector, an increase of €145 million on 2025. These funds include provision for the recruitment of a net 400 additional PDF members per annum.
Significant strides continue to be made on a number of fronts and the allocation of record levels of expenditure is illustrative of my and the Government's commitment to bolster recruitment and retention in the Defence Forces and, by extension, the security of the state.