The number of personnel leaving the Defence Forces last year was more than double the number who joined up, new figures show.
Data on the number of discharges and inductions into the Army, Air Corps and Naval Service released to Green Party justice spokesman Patrick Costello shows that in 2022, 891 people left the defence forces compared to just 435 inductions.
The increase occurred despite a recruitment drive being launched last summer, a €67 million increase in the defence budget, and a government decision to give the green light to a five-year plan to increase spending on defence to €1.5 billion annually, in line with recommendations made by the Commission on the Defence Forces which reported in 2022.
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The data, which was released in a parliamentary question by Minister for Defence and Tánaiste Micheál Martin, shows that the gap between the numbers joining and leaving grew in 2022 when compared to the previous three years, when on average the number of people leaving was 25 per cent higher than those who were inducted into the forces.
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The figures suggest the trend from last year is continuing in 2023 — with a total of 352 personnel having been discharged from the Defence Forces by the end of June, comparable to the 385 who left in the first six months of 2022. Meanwhile, the number of inductees is identical to those who joined in the first half of last year — 151.
“We’re trapped in this downward spiral, and we’ve seen a lot of rhetoric around investing and improving, but to me it doesn’t seem like there’s any confidence with the Defence Forces and we haven’t stopped the bleed,” said Mr Costello. He added that the Defence Forces would have a role in managing the impact of extreme weather events linked to global warming and “step into the breach when the rest of the country is in trouble”.
A Defence Forces spokeswoman said that recruitment and retention is an “ongoing challenge” in the context of the high employment in the Republic.
“Our personnel are highly sought after for the skills, expertise and competence that we develop and instil in them,” she said, adding that there are year-round open recruitment competitions and that future recruitment will allow for new models, including an increase in direct entry for specifically identified technical roles.
Lieut Col Conor King, general secretary of the Representative Association of Commissioned Officers, said the reported strength of the Defence Forces is another record low in its history.
“The failure to arrest the inexorable decline in strength is due to the failure to address decades of neglect, the failure to implement fair and safe working conditions, and the absence of a credible retention policy. We have to be honest where others are not; we cannot recruit our way out of this existential retention crisis,” he said.
The Defence Forces spokeswoman said it had developed a retention strategy which included increases to various allowances, increases in mandatory retirement ages and private health care for all ranks alongside blended learning opportunities.
In reply to Mr Costello, Mr Martin said his immediate focus is on stabilising the numbers in the Defence Forces and thereafter increasing strength. Discharged personnel leave for a variety of reasons, including on age grounds, at the end of contract and under voluntary discharge.
