Ireland

More than 1,500 Defence Forces personnel bought their way out of service since 2019

Recruitment and retention crisis continues

Defence Forces personnel take part in this year's St Patrick's Day parade in Dublin. Photograph: Charles McQuillan/Getty Images

Marie O'Halloran
Tue Mar 19 2024 - 06:00

More than 1,500 Defence Forces personnel purchased their way out of the service over the past five years.

Figures released by Tánaiste and Minister for Defence Micheál Martin show the largest number exited in 2019, when 365 bought their discharge.

Last year 269 successfully sought to leave, 336 departed in 2022, some 289 soldiers bought their way out in 2021 and 260 in 2020.

Some 43 personnel in January this year alone have left the service suggesting yet another large number of departures in 2024.

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Mr Martin said “a small percentage of recruits and apprentices will be required to pay a nominal fee for ‘discharge by purchase’” and the majority of personnel who “owe a service undertaking” or leave before their contract expires are obliged to pay a “nominal fee below €5,000″.

The Defence Forces faces a continuing recruitment and retention crisis that began to emerge before the Covid pandemic as soldiers sought to leave before their contracts ended.

Discharge by purchase occurs, the Tánaiste said, “when a noncommissioned officer or private elects to leave the Defence Forces and pays an appropriate sum to discharge”.

He told Dublin South-Central Green Party TD Patrick Costello in reply to parliamentary questions that “discharges by purchase are assessed on a case-by-case basis depending on years of service”, the person’s role and other issues.

The figures show privates who had served for more than a year accounted for the largest group seeking to depart the service, with 699 leaving over the past five years.

[ Naval Service’s sole active ship unavailable for Cork drugs search due to St Patrick’s Day celebrations ]

Recruits in training were the next largest group, with 680 seeking to leave over the same period while 10 apprentices departed between 2019 and the end of January 2024.

Fifty-one privates who had completed basic training left during that time before the end of their contracts along with eight sergeants and 116 corporals.

Marie O'Halloran

Marie O'Halloran

Marie O'Halloran is Parliamentary Correspondent of The Irish Times

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