Louth's Fitzpatrick says poor conditions causing huge numbers to leave Irish Defence Forces

"In the last 4 years 30% of the Defence Forces' overall strength has left the force, 77% of which were early retirements", Louth TD Peter Fitzpatrick revealed to the Dundalk Democrat today.

Deputy Fitzpatrick went on to say, "I am calling on the government to improve pay and conditions and restore allowances.

"We are losing highly skilled and trained personnel on a daily basis. It is worrying that recruitment is not happening at the pace of which it should’.

"When we lose experienced personnel it has damaging effects on our Defence Forces’ ability to carry out their role of defending of our State, making contributions to overseas peace support operations and adding to European defence.

Deputy Fitzpatrick continued:

"I have seen the work they do first hand and the effect this can have on their families when I attended the Aiken Barracks in Dundalk with my colleague Minister Paul Kehoe TD to pay tribute to the members of the 112th Infantry Battalion, who were leaving with the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon.

"These men and women are a credit to our country and further afield for their peace keeping duties. They can leave for 6 months at a time leaving young families behind. They need to be rewarded and appreciated for their hard work.

"The Defence Forces are the lowest paid of all public servants with a starting private earning just €27k a year including allowances and a recruit earning just €14k a year.

"A survey carried out found that 84.12% of serving personnel earn below the average public service wage. A large volume of Defence Forces personnel depend on Family Income Supplement to get by.

"Any member who joined the defence force after 2011 have reduced pay scales, while their actual date of recruitment will determine their specific occupational pension terms", Deputy Fitzpatrick said.

Concluding Deputy Peter Fitzpatrick stated, "As an ex-solider myself, I am in support of full pay restoration to pre-2008 levels for the Irish Defence Force."