‘Too small’ Wexford army recruit’s plight aired in Dáil
THE height requirements in the Irish army has come under scrutiny after a recruit highlighted how she was rejected for failing the required height measurement test - despite passing it on two previous occasions.
The woman, who wished to remain anonymous, is from Co Wexford.
Speaking to national media at the weekend, the recruit said she was devastated to learn that she was under the minimum 5’2” requirement by less than half a centimetre - during her 10th week of training.
The incident happened in 2017 and was raised by Deputy Mick Wallace in the Dáil who described the situation as ridiculous.
‘ This young Wexford lady has said she’s willing to start again from scratch, but she shouldn’t have to start from scratch,’ he said. ‘She should never have been discharged in the first place and the Minister of State with responsibility for Defence should have intervened and had her reinstated.’
‘We now have an absolutely ludicrous scenario where a recruit, who has met the minimum height requirements on two occasions, is discharged 10 weeks into training for being too small while there are at least two other serving members of the Defence Forces who are shorter than her,’ said Deputy Wallace.
‘After I started to ask a few awkward questions, Minister Kehoe informed the young lady that the Defence Forces are going to review their height measurement procedures,’ said Deputy Wallace.
Minister Kehoe was unavailable for comment on the matter when contacted by this newspaper yesterday (Monday).