Former officers enticed to rejoin military
The minister with responsibility for defence has ordered senior military commanders to try to tempt former colleagues back into service to counter the continuing brain drain in officer ranks.
As officers quit for better-paid jobs in the private sector, Minister Paul Kehoe has taken the unusual step of trying to plug the gaps by re-employing former members of the Defence Forces.
There are critical shortages in specialist officers across the Army, Naval Service, and Air Corps.
The Air Corps is short more than 40 pilots and also requires further air traffic controllers.
The Naval Service has a shortfall of marine engineers, while the Army doesn’t have enough medical officers, bomb disposal experts, and communication information systems (CIS)/cyber security officers.
Mr Kehoe has asked senior commanders to nominate people who might be interested in rejoining the Defence Forces.
The minister will be the ultimate arbitrator in deciding who will be allowed to rejoin.
He indicated that offers to interested personnel could include a short-term, three-year commission.
However, it remains to be seen how successful the move will be, especially in the case of experienced pilots who would have to take a major cut in pay if they were to return from the private sector.
An Air Corps commandant with 15 years’ experience would expect to earn just over €85,000 a year.
In contrast, a pilot with similar experience working for a commercial airline such as Ryanair could expect an annual pay packet of between €150,000 and €200,000 a year.
Similarly, air traffic controllers are earning much more in the private sector, as would marine engineers.
Figures acquired by Fianna Fáil spokesman on defence, Jack Chambers, show the number of people exiting the Defence Forces continues to grow, despite increased recruitment.
Last May, there were 9,010 personnel in the Defence Forces, dropping from 9,044 on the same date 12 months previously. But it’s short of the 9,500 minimum requirement for the Defence Forces to be fully functional.
Senator Gerard Craughwell said he had information from military sources that the figure will drop well below 9,000 before the year-end.
The Representative Association for Commissioned Officers (Raco) warned that recruitment is failing, retention of trained and experienced professionals is failing, while unsustainable numbers voluntarily exit.
“Inadequate remuneration and unfavourable working conditions are undoubtedly forcing the continued exit of military professionals,” a Raco spokesman said.
The Public Service Pay Commission is currently examining requests for pay increases for Defence Forces personnel, who are reportedly the worst paid public servants.
Both Raco and PDForra, which represents enlisted men, have said even the recently accelerated recruitment drive isn’t keeping pace with the number of experienced people exiting the Defence Forces.
Even the standard of recruits is being called into question. A recently leaked classified report gave a snapshot to senior commanders of one recruitment class. It concluded that some had severe learning difficulties, others were extremely unfit, and one had been arrested several times by Gardaí.
