The Defence Forces required "massive" and immediate funding for new equipment to fulfil its international peacekeeping role and any new functions under the Republic's membership of the NATO-led Partnership for Peace (PfP) organisation, a conference of military personnel has heard.
The annual conference of the main military staff representative association heard £200 million should be spent in the next four years. It was also told Government under-funding of the military had placed soldiers' lives at risk.
Delegates in Co Donegal at the 10th annual conference of the Permanent Defence Forces Other Ranks Representative Association (PDFORRA) were told yesterday that the Government had not met its obligations to the military under the terms of a consultants' report on re-organisation.
The outgoing PDFORRA president, Mr Pat Grogan, said the report by consultants Price Waterhouse had stated that a reduction in the size of the Defence Forces should be accompanied by an increase in funding. Mr Grogan said the cutbacks in personnel had reduced the Defence Forces' strength from 13,000 to 11,500, "but we still await any serious commitment or evidence of re-equipping our three brigades, the Air Corps and the Naval Service".
He added: "If we read the Price Waterhouse [report] again, we will find that all of the cutbacks have been achieved but virtually nothing has been achieved in terms of payback and the provision of necessary equipment. It is crucial that equipment, in keeping with international standards, is available to our soldiers as we develop our commitment to PfP and hopefully continue the excellent work already being done by the Defence Forces around the world."
The issue of funding for the Defence Forces was taken up in an address to the conference by the Chief-of-Staff, Lt Gen Dave Stapleton. He pointed out that the consultants report on the defence forces recommended that £400 million should be spent on new equipment. He said £200 million was needed for a re-equipment and modernisation programme over the next four years.
Commenting on the increasing level of service with international peace keeping missions, and the State's commitment to PfP, Lt Gen Stapleton said: "It is an aspiration of mine that the Defence Forces will have within three to four years an infantry battalion group fully equipped and fully trained for whatever tasks our Government will give us at home or overseas."