Over 1,000 Irish soldiers have paid to leave the Defence Forces in recent years, including some of the military’s most highly skilled soldiers.
According to figures released to the Irish Sun, 1,139 troops have purchased their discharge over the past four years, including 135 skilled engineers, bomb experts and medics.
The Irish military has long suffered from an ongoing recruitment and retention crisis, with ex-Irish Ranger Cathal Berry TD telling the Sun that the problem is fundamentally down to poor wages within the armed forces.
Inside staff drain hitting Irish Defence Forces as over 1k soldiers quit https://t.co/hlQaX71o1Y
— The Irish Sun (@IrishSunOnline) December 5, 2022
“They are going and getting paid a fair wage within the public service,” he said.
“For example, if you look at the medical officers — in the Defence Forces they get about €75,000 and these are doctors but if they go to the Prison Service, they get €147,000.
“The exact same employer, the Department of Public Expenditure, pays almost twice for the same qualification in the Prison Service than they do in the Defence Forces.”
He added: “These aren’t anomalies. You hear injustices like that a lot.”
This shortage of skilled and rank-and-file troops has led to issues, with Captain Karl Muckian saying last week that the lack of officers within the Defence Forces poses a safety risk during live fire exercises.
A Defence Forces captain has warned that the shortage of officers in operational units is a safety risk for live fire exercises. https://t.co/pIM3trUwEh
— TheJournal.ie (@thejournal_ie) December 5, 2022
“The loss of corporate knowledge in the Defence Forces as we haemorrhage experienced personnel is an unacceptable risk for us as the organisations managers,” he told the annual conference of the Representative Association of Commissioned Officers (RACO).
“Knowledge, experience, supervision and oversight is a key aspect of safety currently affected by staffing levels.”
Similar sentiments were echoed by Lieutenant Colonel Conor King.
Irish military officer group declares @defenceforces 'moving in wrong direction' @thejournal_ie
We’ll be discussing unresolved staff retention issues at conference this week, which mean that we’ll struggle to get to 9,500, let alone 11500. #RACO22 https://t.co/tGHrzb4xWa
— RACO (@RACO_DF) November 28, 2022
“In an organisation whose stock in trade is the profession of arms and the management and execution of lethal force, [frequent staff turnover] is a grave risk,” he said.
“This rate of churn has also led to a crippling recruitment effort, delivered by our members, but no amount of water has been able to fill the leaky bucket that the organisation has become. So far in 2022, we have suffered a net loss of almost 300 personnel. We are moving in the wrong direction,” he said.
The development comes as the EU says that it is working on creating its own “rapid military intervention force” which will be ready as soon as 2025, according to a report last month by Die Welt.
EU-Staaten beschließen erste eigene Friedenstruppe https://t.co/2WFtm7rGpZ pic.twitter.com/s2bhpv90mE
— WELT (@welt) November 13, 2022
The EU describes the body as a “scalable military instrument,” with not just ground forces, but air and naval forces if the situation calls for it as well.
In October, the Irish government confirmed that Ireland would be contributing 120 troops to the force despite the country’s neutral status.
“As regards a rapid reaction force, yes, I think there’s a good chance that we’ll be involved in that,” Fine Gael Defence Minister Simon Coveney said earlier in the year.
“We could have up to 5,000 trained personnel that have trained together, worked together, have shared equipment, and are ready to go at short notice. And if Ireland chooses to be part of that, then of course we can be.”
This statement seems to contradict Coveney’s previous statement in 2021, where he unambiguously ruled out Ireland being part of any kind of EU military.
“I want to be very clear that no discussions have taken place regarding the further militarisation of the EU or the creation of an European army…There are no plans for an EU army and if there were, Ireland would not be part of it,” he said last May.
These plans have been covered extensively by Gript, which can be read in more detail below.
The EU is working on creating its own armed forces, including ground, naval and air forces, with Ireland set to contribute troops, according to Defence Minister Simon Coveney.#gripthttps://t.co/1TT6BhLNJ9
— gript (@griptmedia) November 15, 2022
Some government TDs have pushed for Ireland to send anti-tank weapons for the defence of Ukraine in its war against Russia, such as Neale Richmond TD.
Ireland could send 60 of these to #Ukraine this week. Ireland should send them this week. https://t.co/C0kaYclXbg
— Neale Richmond (@nealerichmond) March 2, 2022
This is welcome but we have much more equipment we can send. https://t.co/lt6jL9tVJn
— Neale Richmond (@nealerichmond) March 14, 2022