Less than 5% chance of Naval Service applicants being accepted for cadet training

Navy Service personell Bruno Salatieal, Nicole Neary, and Eoin Conroy on board the LÉ Bernard Shaw. Picture: Noel Sweeney

People applying to be a Naval Service officer had less than a 5% chance of being accepted for basic cadet training, according to Defence Forces records.

In 2019, just eight of 192 people (4.1%) who applied to be a Naval Services officer were accepted for the three-month long cadet induction.

This rate dropped to 2.9% by 2023, when just five of the 172 National Service cadet applications led to inductions.

The figures, released under the Freedom of Information Act, cover a five-year period as the number of cadets being commissioned dropped from 15 in 2019 to five in 2023.

Only two cadets were commissioned in 2025, the joint lowest figure since the early 1990s, though this has increased to nine this year.

The Irish Examiner reported in August that the number of people applying to join the Naval Service had increased by 64% in the past year.

However, the strength of the Naval Service is still 239 below the target number, and just four of the State's eight commissioned vessels are available for operations on a rotational basis.

Defence minister Helen McEntee has said it has been "positive to see" the level of growth in numbers in recent years, with 169 inductions last year, a 67% increase on inductions in 2024, with a further 75 inductions achieved to the end of May this year.

Last year, in answer to Dáil questions about what the Government was doing to ensure Ireland had enough personnel to staff its fleet, the Government said recruitment was ongoing via a wide range of pathways, including general service recruitment, re-entry schemes, and eight Naval Service specific direct entry competitions.

As part of the campaign, a Naval Service recruitment advertisement was launched in 2023 and continued through 2025.

In July 2025, the then defence minister, Tánaiste Simon Harris, said the Defence Forces was in the early stages of tendering for an advertising campaign targeted at professionals who could fill direct entry roles in the Naval Service.

The Defence Forces had also partnered with recruitment specialists CPL as part of the process.

Mr Harris pointed to the budget that year as providing a record allocation of €1.35bn for the defence sector, including an allocation providing for the recruitment of at least a net additional 400 personnel per annum.

“Whilst there are still undoubtedly challenges, significant progress has been made on a number of fronts, and the allocation of record levels of expenditure to the defence sector is illustrative of my intent in this regard,” said Mr Harris.