Increase of women in the military ‘encouraged’

The number of women entering the Defence Forces is growing considerably and is something the military wants to encourage.

Latest figures provided to the Irish Examiner show 555 of the 8,855 members of the Defence Forces are women and several of them have senior appointments.

The highest proportion of women (7.1%) is in the Naval Service, where 67 women form part of that 945-strong force.