Government commitments to increase the strength of the Defence Forces will not be met this year due to the need to prioritise funding for the Irish mission to Chad, according to Minister for Defence Willie O'Dea.
The news comes amid recent warnings from the Representative Association for Commissioned Officers (RACO) that the Government can no longer fund overseas missions by the Defence Forces through a reduction in the number of military personnel and selling military lands.
In a recent written response to a Dáil question on the subject, Mr O'Dea said the 2000 White Paper on Defence had set out a figure of 10,500 personnel for the permanent Defence Forces as the required numbers to meet all military requirements up to 2010.
"This remains the position," he said. "To facilitate the Defence Forces in maintaining a strength of 10,500, the agreed Programme for Government provides for an additional provision of up to 350 troops to be in training at any given time.
"However, due to the requirement to prioritise funding for the Chad mission, it has not been possible to provide funding in 2008 to increase the approved strength of the Defence Forces to the level provided for in the Programme for Government. This matter will be further considered in the context of the 2009 Estimates."
Speaking at RACO's biennial conference last month, its general secretary Col Brian O'Keeffe said that given the Defence Forces' roles in Kosovo, the new Nordic Battlegroup and Chad mission, reductions in personnel and the sale of property could not continue indefinitely. He noted that the €7 million cost of participation in the battlegroup had been paid for by savings elsewhere in the defence budget, and said he believed any future "cannibalisation" would be unacceptable.
Mr O'Dea's department got a seven per cent increase in funding in the Budget, bringing its allocation to €1.078 billion for 2008. However, almost three per cent of this was accounted for by an allocation of €37 million for the mission to Chad. Most of this will go on travel, freight and military transport. But the overall cost of the Chad mission is expected to be €57 million, with the balance being met from the department's existing allocation for 2008.
In a response to a separate Dáil question, Mr O'Dea said the average age for many senior personnel in the Defence Forces had increased slightly between 2001 and 2007. In 2001, the average age of a major general was 58.66, compared to 60.11 this year. Although the average age of the next most senior ranking officers, at brigadier general rank, fell from 58.2 to 57.49, the average ages of colonels, lieutenant colonels and commandants rose slightly.