Three months after a new recruitment drive was unveiled to entice former members of the Defence Forces to rejoin, not one of the 646 applicants is back in uniform. The whole exercise has been described as “ridiculous” by a senior Naval Service Reserve (NSR) officer who himself applied to rejoin the full-time force. There is growing frustration across the military at the slow pace, especially as Defence Forces numbers have fallen to their lowest in more than 50 years. They are currently short more than 1,000 personnel and the Naval Service is suffering most. He has written back to the Defence Forces appealing the decision.

Source: Irish Examiner June 25, 2020 16:30 UTC