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.

Raco, the Representative Organisation for Commissioned Officers, first carried out a survey of its members who quit the Defence Forces in 2020. Three years on, little has changed, except the numbers quitting the country’s military continue at an alarming rate.

In 2020, Raco carried out an exit poll of officers and discovered, not to its surprise, that factors which had led them to quit included a very poor work/life balance and poor working conditions, while the hardships they had endured, including lengthy spells away from their families, were not reflected in the remuneration they received.

At that time, 63% of those who quit far before mandatory retirement age said pay was a lot better in the new careers they had taken up.

The same issues have cropped up again in Raco’s latest survey, begging the question, is anybody in power listening? And if they are, they will have to come up with far better ways of retaining people, especially the highly trained personnel.

The real shame, according to the latest survey, published in Raco’s in-house Signal magazine, is that many who quit readily admit that they thoroughly enjoyed the time they spent in the army, navy, or air corps, but felt their service was not appreciated.

The exodus of very experienced officers must be worrying to those left. Now, 37% of all officers across all three wings of the military have an average of less than five years’ service under their belts.

In 2020, the exit poll respondents said the relationship between the military and the Department of Defence was generally “dysfunctional”, alleging the latter is inhibiting improvements in the Defence Forces.

This has not changed, as in the latest survey several respondents claimed some senior military management was “too deferential” to civilian heads in the Department of Defence, which, respondents said, is involved far too much in micro-managing the day-to-day running of the Defence Forces.

The survey highlighted a general feeling that career progression is poor, many are being disadvantaged by having to spend long periods away from their families, and accommodation is less than suitable in many military barracks outside of the main hubs of Dublin, Cork, and Kildare.

Respondents also said there is no policy to enhance remote working where possible to make their work/life balance more tolerable.

In a finding that is of major concern to Raco, 78% of those surveyed did not have an official exit interview with military management. However, if a recruit quits during training, an exit interview is routinely carried out by military management to find out why.

The effective strength of the military is far lower than the official figures released by the Department of Defence.

The slide in numbers continues unabated. When Raco carried out its first survey in 2020, figures from the end of September that year showed there were a total of 8,529 personnel across the whole of the Defence Forces. At that time, the army had 6,878 personnel, whereas it was supposed to have a minimum of 7,520. It was at 88.8% of its strength. The air corps stood at 752 where it should have had 886, representing a strength of 84.9%. The navy should have had a minimum of 1,094 personnel but had 899, or just 82.2% of its minimum strength.

The latest figures available for 2023, correlated on May 31, show the whole strength of the Defence Forces had shrunk to 7,764 personnel.

The army was at 6,305 (83.8% strength), the air corps was at 704 (79.5% strength), and the navy fared even worse, reduced to 755 personnel and a strength of just 69%.

The Irish Examiner understands the figures have fallen again and the effective strength of the military — those who can be put into action today — is far lower than the official figures released by the Department of Defence.

Former defence minister Simon Coveney once said he wanted a younger age profile in the country’s military and having highly trained people leaving the Defence Forces for other jobs could only ultimately benefit the nation’s economy.

That may be true to a certain extent, and there is no doubt that such people, who have learnt discipline and work ethic while in the military, are highly prized. But the private sector has benefitted from taxpayers’ money training these men and women to protect the State.

Mr Coveney said he wanted a fitter and younger military. The trouble is that the exit poll shows the fitter, younger, and highly educated are not staying either. To make matters worse, the same type of people are not signing up any more either.

Retention is in free-fall and recruitment is nowhere near what is needed, which must be especially worrying for the powers-that-be as the country has all but full employment and private sector companies will more than match what the Defence Forces can offer in remuneration and conditions.

Raco general secretary Lieutenant Colonel Conor King, whose association represents around 1,100 officers, said the latest survey shows that military service is now considered by many young officers as a ‘JobBridge’ exercise as it is good for the training and CV but is no longer, as it was in the past, looked upon as a lifetime career.

He said the reduction in pension entitlements introduced for new entrants in 2013 is having a negative impact on young officers staying in the forces. The previous pension entitlements, he said, had made up for the relatively average pay and inferior working conditions endured in the Defence Forces.

Some 28% of those surveyed by Raco said they would not recommend serving in the Defence Forces to a family member.

Of those, 58% said they would only recommend it for five to 10 years and just 3% said they would recommend it as a lifetime career.

In a further damning insight into low morale, 22% said they still would not recommend it as a viable career even with an improvement in pay, allowances, pensions, and working hours.

Lt Col King pointed out that retaining experience is where the Defence Forces falls down.

“Improved working conditions and a fair work/life balance are only guaranteed by the introduction of the Working Time Directive [and] would no doubt improve retention,” said Lt Col King.

In total, 43% of those surveyed cited working conditions as a critical factor in their decision to leave, reinforced by over-work, where they were double- or triple-jobbing.

If resources could be invested to match, not even exceed, requirements, the Defence Forces would be a much more attractive working environment for all officers.” 

The survey showed that the vast majority of those who served are proud of their service in the Defence Forces and enjoyed it immensely.

“It provided them with fantastic and varied life experiences all over the globe, friendships that have stood the test of time, and valuable education and skills that they continue to utilise in their new careers.

“Many of those surveyed expressed a continued willingness to serve the State, with 47% willing to commit their time, effort, and experience for the continued benefit of the Defence Forces, if there was an ability to do so through joining the First Line Reserve now, for example. This is an immensely valuable, but underutilised, resource,” he said.

The number of officers taking early retirements tripled from the 2020 survey to the latest one. None of those surveyed in the recent poll said covid was a reason for them quitting even though there was huge pressure on the Defence Forces at the time to aid the Government’s effort in the face of the pandemic.

Instead, other issues were at play in their decision-making.

Of those who left, 94% had overseas service and 58% of them had undertaken three or more foreign tours of duty. One had done 12.

In the Raco survey, an officer is quoted as saying that they got no exit interview from their bosses and, therefore, regarded it as “no recognition of service”.

'Impersonal, disappointing'

“It was very impersonal and disappointing after dedicating a significant part of my young adult life to the organisation,” added the officer.

Another said that having sought a discharge there had been no approach from military HR to ascertain the reasons for leaving. The officer readily admitted that some interaction may have made them change their mind, but the lack of engagement reinforced their decision to quit as “the organisation does not value its members”.

The officer added that only after they had left, HR decided to do an exit interview. Any such interviews, either before or after leaving, appear to be a rarity.

Working conditions were identified by 43% of respondents as being “a critical factor” in their decision to leave the Defence Forces early.

A shortage of officers and multi-tasking to plug the gaps was also identified as a reason to quit.

One officer told the survey that they were completely overstretched and received no support or understanding from senior military management when they could not possibly reach all the targets imposed on them.

“There was an attitude of ‘not my problem’ [from senior management],” the officer told the Raco interview.

Another officer referred to the inadequate pay they got for doing the job.

“Current pay scales are not sufficient to compete with the private sector,” said the officer. “The organisation cannot recruit its way out of the retention crisis. The messaging to government has failed to produce any substantive change for the front-line units. I served at multiple levels in the organisation and saw at first hand the disconnect between the strategic level and the front line. There appears to be a general reticence to speak the truth to the political authority and to communicate the systematic risks that the nation is actively ignoring through its failures of defence policy and defence strategy.”

Another said that chronic under-staffing and lack of resources and being “constantly spread so thin” meant they were “firefighting and being forced into doing a mediocre job”.

When it came to more flexible working arrangements, 26% of those who quit said they may have stayed if these were in place, a similar figure said ‘maybe’, but 48% gave a definitive ‘no’ response.

One officer who responded to this problem, in particular, told the survey: “Everybody is focussed on big projects that will take years to implement to solve the recruitment/retention problems.

“Yet they [senior management] are ignoring simple, quick-fix measures like hybrid working. Increase the number of remote laptops available and develop an agreed policy that promotes hybrid working.

“This is something that could be done at a relatively low cost in a month and would be a huge retention measure across the whole organisation.”

Raco general secretary Lieutenant Colonel Conor King said the latest survey shows that military service is no longer looked on as a lifetime career.

Nearly everyone who took part in the Raco poll has found a new job. Of those, 63% found employment in the private sector with the remainder going to work in the public sector. In the latter, many jumped into very highly paid grades.

The majority cited their new jobs as being “less onerous” in terms of being away from their families; in many cases, with better pay and working conditions as well.

As far back as 2015, University of Limerick (UL) boffins undertook a ‘Climate Survey’ of Defence Forces members which highlighted even then the “dysfunctional turnover” of personnel, which was obviously “compromising operational capability, governance, safety and wellbeing of military personnel”.

Lt Col King said that Raco had repeatedly highlighted a lack of safe manning levels and basic infrastructure, not only at their conferences every year since 2015, but in their regular engagements with senior military management.

Enlisted personnel

PDForra, the association which represents enlisted personnel, started firing warning shots on the issue just a couple of years previously. The exodus of enlisted personnel is even more pronounced than officers.

Eight years on from the definitive UL survey, the issues across the board have got even worse and personnel are continuing to vote with their feet.

Many retired senior officers across the army, navy, and air corps have told the Irish Examiner they believe the personnel crisis is now on a cliff edge and in terms of the navy may have gone beyond the point of no return.

They say that successive governments, who did not listen to the warnings, have left us all but defenceless, not just in the face of a foreign enemy but in terms of even having the capabilities to counter subversive elements who might start flexing their muscles again in this country.

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The latest survey should be taken in conjunction with a changing world. The Russians pose a major threat to transatlantic seabed communications cables off our coast, which transmit multiple millions of daily transactions between North America and Europe. The navy cannot counter this threat and can barely mount sea fishery patrols or drug interceptions. The army struggles to put enough soldiers into the field on foreign and domestic duties, and we have no fighter jets to intercept suspect aircraft entering our airspace.