Military officers group remains unconvinced by Government moves to address staffing crisis

The group representing Defence Forces officers says its remains unconvinced the Government is committed to restoring military strength.

The Representative Association of Commissioned Officers (RACO) is to make an “urgent appeal” to Minister for Defence Simon Coveney at its annual conference on Tuesday for further action to stem the exodus of trained personnel leaving the Defence Forces.

Defence Forces numbers are expected to drop below 8,000 this year for the first time in many years. Regarding officers, there is a significant shortage of captains, which serve as the middle-management tier in the Defence Forces.

The number of Defence Forces captains is currently only at 75 per cent of establishment strength of 451. This drops to 60 per cent when personnel on training courses, sick leave and overseas deployment are included.

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Earlier this year the Government announced plans to increase permanent Defence Forces numbers to 11,500 in the coming years.

[ Defence Forces on track to witness greatest ever exodus of members, conference told ]

In a statement, RACO said “it still needs to be convinced that there is a meaningful commitment to reform, reinvigorate and restore a depleted Defence Forces which is currently not fit for purpose”.

General secretary Lieut Col Conor King said there are significant problems with service conditions in the Defence Forces “such as a total lack of respect for the working time of members, a failure to staff operational units, and inferior career progression and pension arrangements that have been well documented but unfortunately ignored to date”.

Inadequate and deteriorating officer numbers are impacting the “health, safety and wellbeing of our members by reducing mentoring, supervision and governance, and increasing risk”, said RACO president Commandant Martin Ryan.

“This high instance of vacancies and persistent dysfunctional cycle of turnover remains unacceptable and is one of the primary reasons why officers continue to leave the Defence Forces in such high numbers.”

He said RACO is calling on Defence Forces Chief of Staff Lieut Gen Seán Clancy to register the manning level of units as a strategic risk to the organisation.

One topic likely to dominate the conference is exclusion of the Defence Forces from the EU working time directive which limits on the number of continuous hours employees can be asked to work.

[ Just 44 women joined Defence Forces last year despite new recruitment efforts ]

Defence Forces senior management have told Government the working time directive is not compatible with military service and that many more people would need to be recruited in order to implement it.

Many Defence Forces taskings require members to work up to 24 hours in a row, something representative groups say is driving people out of the military and into the private sector.

The RACO conference is to debate a motion on Tuesday rejecting exemptions from the directive “without associated protections”. It will also call on Mr Coveney to address the deterioration in Defence Forces medical services “and the failure to retain sufficient numbers of medical officers and other medical personnel”.

Mr Coveney and Lieut Gen Clancy are due to address the conference on Tuesday.