Fine Gael’s Defence spokesman gets it wrong again and again – Minister Willie O’Dea TD

During the course of today’s oral parliamentary questions Fine Gael’s Defence spokesman, Deputy Jimmy Deenihan asked: “…the reason that, following the downsizing of numbers in the Defence Force, a proportionate reduction in the numbers in his Department did not take place.

This follows an assertion he had made on January 7th that “The Department itself has not been cutback” and that this was “further proof of the Government’s failure to introduce real reform into the public service.”.

As with his assertions on a range of issues, Deputy Deenihan is wrong on each and every point. The people who advise him appear to be completely unaware of the moratorium on recruitment, even though he regularly poses questions about it. They should try reading the replies sometime.

The fact is that the number of civil servants (measured in whole time equivalents) in my Department has reduced significantly and, overall, at a slightly faster rate than the reduction in military personnel. In 1981 my Department had 699 civil Servants. In 1990 there were 443. By 2000 it was 422. Before the moratorium in 2008 it was 385 and today it is 344.

In simple terms: the numbers in the Defence Forces is 4.5% below the 2008 level of 10,404, while the numbers in the Department is 10.6% below the 2008 level of 385.

The record in Defence is quite different to the trend elsewhere in the civil service. Both the civil service and military elements of the Defence organisation have now achieved the strength levels recommended by the McCarthy report. We have done this well within the suggested timeframe.

Rather than attacking the Department of Defence and the Defence Forces, Fine Gael should be championing them. Unfortunately Deputy Deenihan and his backroom team of scriptwriters have chosen to go the other way.

Fine Gael fails to realise the modernisation and reform we have achieved in the Defence Forces and the Department of Defence are a model of public sector reform and how such reform can benefit the organisations themselves.

In 1981 employment in Defence totalled 18,063 comprising 15,201 in the PDF, 2,163 civilians employed in barracks and 699 civil servants in the Department of Defence. In 2009 employment reached 11,300 comprising 10,100 in the PDF, 820 civilians employed in barracks and 380 civil servants employed in the Department of Defence.

We have invested the savings in better equipment and structures and the defence organisation now does more with less. Deputy Deenihan’s January 7th statement also included the extraordinary claim that Ireland has five times as many civil servants administering the Army as compared with New Zealand.

Deputy Deenihan’s suggestion that we replicate the New Zealand model would require us to more than double the number of people working in Defence administration from just over 600 to over 1400.*

With logic like this perhaps Deputy Kenny might be able to solve his problem in finding a role for Deputy George Lee and consider assigning him to help Deputy Deenihan in getting his figures correct and appraise him of developments in the wider world.

Note:

*While the Ministry of Defence in New Zealand has approximately 60 employees the New Zealand Defence Force Headquarters has 1,385 personnel. 1,087 of these are civilians. This is a total of 1445 compared with a total of 614

The Irish Department of Defence has 344 civil servants (WTE) while the Defence Force HQ has 270 military personnel: giving a total of 614.

The tasks undertaken by the civil element of the Department here encompass a range of tasks undertaken by both the New Zealand Ministry of Defence and New Zealand Defence Forces Headquarters, with its large civilian component. The legislative basis underpinning Defence provision differs from State to State. The model that New Zealand [or any other country] has adopted are designed to meet their particular requirements.