asked the Minister for Defence the number of men who enlisted in the Defence Forces over the past ten years and the number whose initial period of service expired in each of those years and the number who failed to re-enlist.

3.

asked the Minister for Defence the number of men who were enlisted in the Defence Forces in each of the past ten years.

4.

asked the Minister for Defence the number of men whose initial period of service expired in each of the past ten years and the number who failed to re-enlist.

With the permission of the Ceann Comhairle, I propose to take Questions Nos. 2, 3 and 4 together.

As the reply is in the form of a tabular statement, I propose to circulate it in the Official Report.

Following is the statement:

*Column 4 may also include initial engagements but it is not possible without a considerable amount of time and work to identify whether certain 6, 7, 9 or 12 year engagements are initial engagements.

Could the Minister give any indication of what the trend is, particularly in relation to those who have enlisted for a short term?

It would be better for the Deputy to leave the matter until he has seen the figures in the statement.

There are five columns of figures here. If the Deputy wants to put down a further question when he reads them he can do so.