New drive for recruits as military numbers plummet
Wednesday November 25 2009
The overall strength of the permanent Defence Forces dipped below 10,000 yesterday for the first time in almost four decades.
The drop immediately prompted Defence Minister Willie O'Dea to declare that a new recruitment campaign would be launched despite the current ban on hiring new staff in the public sector.
The minister said the Cabinet had agreed that 10,000 was the bottom line for the military and the numbers should not be allowed to drop below it.
He said he had raised the issue recently with Finance Minister Brian Lenihan, who viewed his request sympathetically.
However, the latest fall means a recruitment campaign is imperative. He said he did not know yet how many would be recruited. But it is thought likely that around 200 enlisted personnel will be sought.
Last week Mr O'Dea told the Dail that numbers had fallen to 10,013. But acting chief of staff of the Defence Forces, Major General Dave Ashe, told the biennial conference in Cavan of Raco, the representative association for officers, that it had dropped to 9,981 by yesterday.
Senior officers said the numbers had not dropped to that level since the late 1960s or early 1970s.
There is expected to be a huge response to a new campaign. Already, the military have about 6,000 applications on their books in anticipation of a start-up of recruitment again.
Mr O'Dea also announced that he had secured an exemption from the public sector moratorium on promotions for 50 new appointments across all ranks in the Defence Forces.
He said a breakdown of the new promotions between officers and enlisted personnel had not yet been worked out but he said they had been improved in recognition of the modernisation and progress already delivered in the Defence Forces in the past 10 years.
General Ashe welcomed the announcement and said it would allow the authorities to fill necessary command appointments that were currently vacant.
Raco general secretary Brian O'Keeffe said there was discernible frustration, anger and distress among members at the current financial cutbacks and the great uncertainty about the future.
They were not in crisis, he said, but there was a real danger that the benefits of the progress of the last 19 years might be put at risk if the Government was not conscious of the impact of its actions on the Defence Forces and the morale of its members.
He pointed out that Defence Force numbers had been cut by 32pc, or 4,800 personnel, since 1989 while during the same timespan the overall public sector had added 12,000 personnel, or a 62pc increase.
Value
"In present value terms, Defence Force personnel are costing the State €206m less than they were in 1989. Now that is value for money," Col O'Keeffe added.
"If what we have done to date is not taken into account, it would represent a form of performance punishment."
Raco president Lieut Col Michael Baston noted that the fresh cut of 500 personnel, recommended by the McCarthy report earlier this year to be implemented over three years, had already been achieved.
He hoped that for the Defence Forces it would not be a case of "eaten bread is soon forgotten".
Over the past 11 months a total of 80 officers have left, 25 on age grounds and 55 voluntarily, while two-thirds of enlisted personnel have resigned voluntarily and a third due to age.
A total of 519 have left the Defence Forces since the start of the year.
- Tom Brady Security Editor
Irish Independent
