Pay and recruitment/retention crisis to dominate PDForra conference

At the end of 2015, the Defence Forces had 9,140 personnel. Now it has less than 7,600 and, according to a panel of military experts from Ireland and other countries, it needs a minimum of 11,500 people to keep security operations going both at home and abroad. File picture: Eamonn Farrell/RollingNews.ie

Demands for better pay, allowances, and conditions will dominate a three-day military representative association’s conference which gets under way on Tuesday.

The PDForra conference will also discuss the urgent need to address "failed recruitment and retention policies" which have decimated the ranks across the army and air corps, but particularly the naval service.