When the new Minister for Defence, Simon Coveney TD, returns to the Department he left four years ago, he will be shocked to see the extent to which the Defence Forces (DF) has fallen into decline.

Talks are currently underway on a possible Programme of Government, which, for the next four and a half years, will set down the new Government’s approach on how the nation’s issues are to be addressed.

A number of former officers of the Irish Defence Forces (including Dorcha Lee and Ray Cawley) have very justifiably criticised the present depleted condition of our Defence Forces and the manner that recent governments have treated our serving soldiers, and I agree with their concerns.

As a former classmate and colleague of Dorcha Lee, I subscribe fully to the issues he raised concerning the abysmal state of the Defence Forces of this country — ‘Call to halt depletion of Defence Forces‘ (Irish Examiner, May 27). It gladdened me to also read the editorial comment of this newspaper.

Even if it is instinctive to hope for the best in most situations, there can be a very fine line between optimism and delusion. Optimism can be an indirect expression of fear simply because circumstances seem almost beyond control.

The next government must draw up a six-point plan to reinvigorate the ever-depleting Defence Forces, which are now at their lowest strength for more than 50 years, a former senior army officer has urged.

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