Aldi’s military call-up weakens defence

Private companies, including discount giant Aldi, have been actively seeking senior defence force personnel at such a rate that top brass warn the military is at serious risk of “not being fit for purpose”.

Nearly 100 officers have resigned in the past two years and that, allied to continuing budget and manpower cuts, has weakened the Defence Forces in key areas, RACO (Representative Association of Commissioned Officers) has warned.

RACO said the military is critically short of specialist officers including pilots, aeronautical engineers, and bomb disposal experts.

It said a contributing factor to this brain drain has been the Department of Defence’s refusal to honour conditions of service, such as previously agreed career promotion terms. The association said this led many officers to quit as they saw no future for career development in the Defence Forces.

They have been snapped up by private companies, notably Aldi, which to date has head-hunted around 18.

It is little wonder the German discount supermarket is eager to employ people with military experience because they fit in exactly with its advertised policy of seeking “born leaders possessing the drive and ambition to succeed in a demanding and fast-paced environment”.

Starting salaries for its managers are €61,000 with a car, rising to €92,000 after four years, plus a fully expensed Audi A4, along with private healthcare.

Ireland’s defence budget is the lowest in Europe as a percentage of GDP, in spite of increasing security risks and threats posed by religious radicalisation.

The Defence Forces should have a designated strength of 9,500, but their numbers have now fallen to 9,050.

The bomb disposal service is at half its officer strength. The Air Corps lacks a third of officers in the aeronautical engineering department and has only 70% of pilots needed.

It can take the Defence Forces anything between four and six years to train a specialist officer.

“This continual loss of organisational corporate memory and specialist knowledge is a matter which requires immediate attention,” RACO general secretary Commandant Earnán Naughton said. He said investment required to deliver complex military capability requires human expertise to meet the broad spectrum of an increasingly technologically driven security environment.

“Retention of this expertise is undoubtedly the most cost-effective model relative to the continued replacement of organisation professionals,” Cmdt Naughton said.

Budget cuts in recent years have had a significant impact on the military.

Barracks have been closed, units amalgamated, and numbers depleted. Equipment purchases have been funded by these measures, which both RACO and PDforra (which represents enlisted men) have claimed is unacceptable cannibalisation.

“The forthcoming White Paper on defence policy must adequately address these resourcing issues,” said Cmdt Naughton. “Minister Coveney is aware of this and we are hopeful the Government will react positively to the current manpower shortage.

The comments come just a month after recently-retired Brigadier General Ger Ahern said Government cutbacks make it unlikely the Defence Forces and gardaí could prevent an outbreak of foot-and-mouth, swine flu, or avian flu spreading from the North into the Republic, with the closure of Army barracks and Garda stations along the border.