Up to 20 per cent of applicants for the Defence Forces who got as far as the medical exam failed the hearing test, the Dail was told . The Minister for Defence, Mr Smith, also said that a further 15 to 20 per cent failed the physical exam and 10 per cent the medical. Expressing grave concern about the hearing damage caused by radio cassette players and discos, he described the figures as "extraordinary, serious, and hazardous".

He said there were 1,376 applicants for 46 cadet positions, 370 applications for 17 apprentice posts and 3,100 applications for 800 positions for enlistment.

During questions on defence, Mr Smith told Mr Billy Timmins (FG, Wicklow) he wanted to raise public consciousness that such a high incidence of hearing problems was emerging in the younger population.

"I have had no doubt for years that the level of noise at some of those functions is totally undesirable and injurious and there is some action that needs to be taken," he said.

This problem could be addressed through another area of health, and the Government, he said, "has its own responsibilities to promote circumstances" where those noise levels would not exist.

Earlier he told Mr Brian O'Shea (Lab, Waterford) he was concerned about the level of some of the court awards for hearing damage. They were "considerably higher" than in other jurisdictions "for the kind of hearing handicap which most people have been able to accept as not being of that injurious a nature".

As a result, he said an expert group appointed by himself and the Minister for Health would develop "hearing assessment criteria on which future cases could be judged on their true merit".

He stressed, however, that he was not reducing "the exposure of the State to legitimate claims". Where there was significant handicap "the State is open to liability and we will respond to those legitimate cases to the very limit we can".

He pointed out that 25 or 26 cases were defended and the claims were withdrawn, which may have affected more recent cases where awards were lower.

He said 9,900 claims were currently on file by members of the Defence Forces alleging hearing damage or handicap from exposure to gunfire.

About 872 of those were settled and the average compensation was about £22,000, plus £4,400 in legal costs for the plaintiff, he said.

The Minister added however that "we have no idea at all" what the final number of claims would be because 220,000 men and women had served in the Defence Forces.

Mr Timmins had asked the Minister to change the height requirement for army recruits back from 5 ft 5 inches to 5 ft 2 ins because it adversely affected female applicants whom Fianna Fail had pledged to encourage into the Defence Forces.

Mr Sean Power (FF, Kildare South) whose constituency covers the Curragh camp, asked why the decision was taken to change the height requirement. "If a soldier of 5 ft 2 was good enough 10 or 15 years ago I can't see why a person of 5 ft 2 is not good enough today." Ms Monica Barnes (FG, Dun Laoghaire) pointed out that the raising of the height requirement might not be in compliance with the Employment Equality Act.

Mr Smith told Fine Gael's Defence spokeswoman, Ms Frances Fitzgerald, that letters offering "retention gratuities" had been sent to 25 Air Corps pilots, to dissuade them from going into the private commercial sector.

Ms Fitzgerald suggested that the "differentials" the incentive scheme would create would be very bad for morale among senior officers and other personnel and would create dissatisfaction.

Mr Smith rejected this and said the scheme was specially negotiated for particular pilots. "It is a far better arrangement than the compulsory retention which was in place previously. It is the very best that we can do. And it's not possible to make the same offer indiscriminately to people who may not be so classified."

He also said he did not expect "too long a delay" before the publication of the Price Waterhouse reviews of the Air Corps and Naval Service. He believed the Audit Review Group would have the report by mid-December. "I am anxious to get it out into the open and to move on from there into the integration of that process into the general review of the Defence Forces."