Sean O’Riordan: When warning shots on the crisis in our military go unheeded

Officers are increasingly quitting the Defence Forces well before retirement age and a new survey lays bare the reasons for the exodus, writes Sean O’Riordan

Members have said that the long time spent away from their families is not reflected in their remuneration.

It seems a bit like groundhog day. For over a decade, warning shots have been repeatedly fired across the bows of successive governments by the two Defence Forces representative associations forecasting that the country’s military was heading for a personnel meltdown, of which it is now very firmly in the grip.

A new survey of nearly 100 officers, the vast majority of whom have quit the military well before mandatory retirement age, lays bare yet again the reasons personnel are leaving in their droves and it makes quite stark reading.