DEFENCE FORCES:THERE WAS a "strong case for a phase of retrenchment" of overseas missions for both training and equipment, the Minister for Defence said yesterday.

Tony Killeen told an Oireachtas committee that no formal contact had been made with the UN by his department about another overseas mission.

The final batch of Irish troops returned from the UN mission in Chad almost a month ago.

A rise in frustration among soldiers and a decline in professionalism would result from the lack of an overseas mission, Fine Gael TD Jimmy Deenihan told the Joint Committee on Defence.

Overseas missions were the “lifeblood” of the defence forces, he said. “We can’t keep training people if we have nothing to train them for” because they will “get frustrated if there is no objective in their training”, he said.

If Irish troops had delayed withdrawal from Chad any further they would have lost some equipment, which could have got into the hands of the wrong people, Mr Killeen said. All key military equipment had either been returned or was in the process of coming back.

Mr Killeen confirmed that the Defence Forces was recruiting 40 Naval officers and was considering taking in cadets.