113. Deputy Paul Donnelly asked the Minister for Defence if a new cadetship recruitment campaign for the Naval Service will be launched in Quarter 4 2026. [67080/26]

The 2026 Naval Service Cadetship competition was launched in February and closed for applications in March. A total of 914 applications were received for this competition which represents a significant increase on the 337 applications received for the same competition in 2025. Overall, a total of 2,879 applications were received across all cadetship competitions in 2026 which represents a 58% increase on the equivalent figure for 2025.

Those commencing training as Naval Service Cadets this year are expected to be attested later this month. There are no plans to launch a further cadetship recruitment campaign for the Naval Service in 2026.