A 700-strong cohort of experienced Defence Forces personnel will know, before the end of the year at the latest, if they will be forced to retire or be kept on. The cohort, known as the Post-94 group, were given shorter contracts when they joined up and, under the terms of the contracts, will be forced out of the Defence Forces in December 2022, unless there is ministerial intervention in the meantime. The Defence Forces is already short of the minimum number of personnel it requires. The latest figures supplied by the Defence Forces show that as of June 30, they were short 981 personnel of the number they require across the Army, Naval Service, and Air Corps. The Naval Service alone is down around 200 personnel on its minimum strength of 1,067.

Source: Irish Examiner July 20, 2021 19:18 UTC