WOMEN are avoiding a career in the Defence Forces with just SEVEN currently in training out of 135 new recruits.
There are five in the Army, one in the Navy and one in the Air Corp as of February 12 last.
The shock figures were revealed by Tanaiste and Defence Minister Simon Harris.
But there are 99 men training to be soldiers, 24 men in the Navy and five men in the Air Corp.
He also confirmed that out of a further batch of new recruits who have progressed to Private 2 training just 13 of the 194 are female.
The struggle to boost female recruitment figures comes on the back a recent sexual, bullying and harassment scandal exposed by the Women of Honour group.
The Government has vowed to change the culture to make the Irish military more female-friendly and to end the macho image among some officers and troops.
There are around 600 women in the Irish Defence Forces out of 7,500 members – less than 10pc.
The figures were released as Mr Harris was responding to a series of parliamentary questions on the overall recruitment issue.
He said there is a stabilisation in the overall previous downward trend of people joining the Defence Forces.
In 2024, there were 708 new personnel while there were 674 discharges – 81 fewer than the previous year and the lowest since 2020.
The military hope to induct 800 new members this year alone.
The Minister said: “Interest in a career in the Defence Forces continues to rise as evidenced by the total of 13,348 applications received in 2024 across all competitions.
“This is an increase of approximately 33 per cent on the total number received in 2023.
“Whilst there are still undoubtedly challenges, significant progress has been made on a number of fronts and the allocation of record levels of expenditure to the Defence sector is illustrative of my intent in this regard.”
Military recruits on completion of training now get a starting salary of €40,297 while school leaver officer cadets upon commissioning earn €44,216 while in full time education.
