Defence Forces officer numbers at 1972 level

The number of officers in the Defence Forces has fallen to its lowest level since 1972, though the international terrorism threat has seldom been higher.

The Irish Examiner understands the current officer strength across the army, naval service, and air corps stands at 1,154 — which is just 37 more than in 1972.

A total of 18 officers from the army and one from the air corps were commissioned at the Defence Forces Training Centre at the Curragh last Thursday. However, that intake has already been cancelled out by news that around 20 other officers, mainly from the army, have signalled their intention to take early retirement. Far more will also be forced to retire from the Defence Forces this year on age grounds.

The brain drain from the Defence Forces has been significant in the past two years, with 136 officers taking early retirement.

Many were head-hunted by private companies offering them better pay and conditions, notably German supermarket chain Aldi.

It is expected that vacancies for officer cadets will be advertised in the next few weeks, but the positions aren’t likely to be filled by September and it will take approximately 15 months before they are fully trained and assigned to units.

The army’s bomb disposal squad has just half of the officers needed.

There are supposed to be 107 officers of all ranks in the air corps, but sources have indicated there are currently just over 70. They only have around 60% of the officer pilots required.

Several who have gained significant experience have been headhunted by airlines offering better pay. The air corps is also very short of helicopter mechanics and technicians. They are at just 30% strength. It takes four years to train and a further four years for them to reach optimal experience.

They are also being head-hunted by private companies, especially those based in the Middle East.

The naval service is critically short of junior officers and there is no current recruitment to fill the gap. It’s estimated that more than 30 junior officers are needed, especially in operations and marine engineering.

Ships are currently 25% short of junior officers, who take up to four years to fully train. Cruise lines are particularly keen to poach skilled officers.

RACO, the Representative Association for Commissioned Officers, described the officer shortage across the three services as critical.

At its recent annual conference the association said the number of vacancies places extra burdens on those serving, who carry out multiple roles to plug gaps. RACO said this was compromising health and safety.

Fatigue and safety concerns were also identified by an external safety management system review of the air corps in 2013.