DEFENCELESS
»»low wages driving new army recruits out »»one in four quit job during past five years »»Minister urged to go over forces crisis
NEW military recruits are leaving in their droves “to work in Tesco” because of shockingly low pay and conditions.
It has prompted ex-army officer Senator Gerard Craughwell to call for Defence Minister Paul Kehoe to resign for letting the forces plummet into crisis on his watch.
New figures received by the Irish Mirror show a quarter of 2,500 new recruits to the Army, Navy and Air Corps left the forces over the past five years.
It costs the taxpayer approximately €100,000 to train each of these.
Lt Col Earnan Naughton, general secretary of the Representative Association of Commissioned Officers, is not surprised so many young trained soldiers are leaving for jobs in supermarkets as the pay and conditions are better.
He said it is distressing to see them go but he understands why they are leaving because young men and women can easily get €10,000 more a year elsewhere than the €27,000 they earn on graduating due to the skill sets they received in training.
Lt Col Naughton added: “The reason the Defence Forces are failing to retain [recruits] is first of all down to pay, we are training professional soldiers who then go on to specialise, be it in ordnance explosives, engineering, medical, or electrical. We are developing skill sets for these people but we are not paying them on par with the private sector.
“When you have young trained professionals earning well below the average industrial wage, who cannot sustain a mortgage, or afford childcare, you have a serious problem.
“A lot of these guys are leaving to work in Tesco or local employers because of the quality of life, better wages, and after that, really, everything else is secondary.”
Lt Col Naughton also warned the cost implications of the brain drain is having a major knock-on effect on the rest of the Defence Forces and services are suffering as a result.
In total, across the three Defence Forces divisions, a total of 2,496 recruits started training between 2013 and 2017.
To date, 641 of them have left and only 1,822 remain.
Senator Craughwell obtained the shocking statistics through a Freedom of Information request and he is now calling for the Defence Minister to step down in the wake of the revelations.
He said: “The time has come for the Minister of State at the Department of Defence Deputy Paul Kehoe TD to step down or be removed from the Defence portfolio.
“The Defence Forces are in a state of deep crisis and it is clear Minister Kehoe is not taking the necessary steps to reverse trends.
“The numbers are startling. The New recruits are leaving in their droves Defence Forces are now beyond remedial action – what’s needed now is a complete rebuild from the ground up.
“It seems clear the minister does not understand what is happening.
“It seems clear he does not understand the difference between establishment and number in station.”
A spokesman for Mr Kehoe defended the minister’s record in office.
He said: “The Defence Forces have always had significant turnover.
“The long-term trend indicates that approximately 20% of recruits do not complete their training.
“This is not a new issue and there will always be individuals who decide that a career in the military is not for them.
“However, as Minister Kehoe has highlighted, there are challenges in meeting strength targets particularly with regard to the retention of specialist personnel.
“The Public Service Pay Commission will be explicitly examining these issues in its next tranche of work.”
The RACO annual conference takes place next week and Lt Col Naughton said the recruitment crisis will be top of the agenda.
The Defence Forces have always had significant turnover SPOKESMAN FOR MINISTER KEHOE, LEFT