THE Defence Forces could eventually be reduced to under 8,000 personnel with no United Nations or other foreign assignments, it has been suggested.
The warning came during a conference by the staff association representing about 10,000 noncommissioned military personnel.
The special delegate conference in Cork of the Permanent Defence Forces Other Ranks Representative Association (PDFORRA) was told that Government plans for reducing the Defence Forces "did not exclude the possibility of further cuts to just over 8,000 troops".
The PDFORRA general secretary, Mr John Lucey, challenged politicians "to indicate if they would be part of a Government that would reduce the Defence Forces below 11,500 (its present strength) or allow the Defence Forces to fall below this figure due to lack of recruitment".
He said it was "a blatant policy of certain Government departments to continue to cut back the Defence Forces, supported by the Government of the day, and this will eventually lead to a total withdrawal from UN service and an inability to participate in a European security network".
PDFORRA feared that the latest reduction in the Defence Forces, which has cut numbers from 13,000 to 11,500, could endanger soldiers' welfare as fewer personnel attempted to carry out the same role.
There was also a fear that financial considerations would restrict recruitment. PDFORRA believed that the strength of the Defence Forces should immediately be increased to more than 12,000.
Mr Lucey also commented on the fact that the Government has chosen not to disclose the contents of a management consultant's report on the Air Corps and Naval Service.
He believed the report had been kept secret because it recommended increasing the number of naval and Air Corps personnel and increased expenditure on the two services.
There was now a growing unease in the Army that any increase in the Naval Service and Air Corps "will mean a knock on fall in numbers for them," he said. This could not be acceptable to PDFORRA as the Army had already suffered serious downsizing.
He called on the Minister for Defence and the Marine, Mr Barrett, to "come clean and inform the Army, Air Corps and Naval Service personnel how he plans to proceed from here".