More than 900 people recruited to the Defence Forces left within less than five years of joining the military since 2020.
New figures show how 837 men and 65 women resigned their post without having even completed five years of full service.
This included members from across the force from cadet to commandant according to data released by the Defence Forces.
The Defence Forces strength in numbers has been in decline in recent years and fell below 7,500 last year.
The figures show that 43 cadets and 637 recruits left the military within five years of having joined up in the period since 2020.
A further 7 apprentices, 175 privates, and 11 corporals also departed not long after becoming members of the Defence Forces.
The data showed 11 corporals and 5 sergeants, whose careers appeared to be progressing well, left the military as well.
There were departures too from the commissioned ranks with 2 ensigns, 4 lieutenants and 4 sub-lieutenants leaving within five years.
In addition to that, 7 captains and 7 commandments also resigned their post not long after becoming members.
Overall, 902 people left within five years of joining between 2020 and 2024, with 199 departing during the course of last year.
Defence Forces spokesman Commandant Conor Hurley said retention was influenced by a variety of factors including terms and conditions, job satisfaction, workplace culture as well as broader socio-economic factors.
He said there were ongoing efforts to support keeping people in the Defence Forces and that last year there was a 70.6 percent increase in the number of inductions to the Army, Air Corp and Naval Service compared to 2023.
That saw 708 people sign up as compared to just 415 the previous year.
The government department responsible for housing asylum seekers says it will no longer publicly identify its staff after one had their personal information shared online while others were threatened with violence.
The Department of Children and Equality said there was a “tangible risk” for staff as they grappled with incidents involving arson attacks, threats to staff and facilities, animal cruelty incidents and widespread intimidation.
Under normal circumstances, public bodies are obliged to provide the names of staff members when publishing documents or releasing them in response to Freedom of Information requests.
However, the department said it had become too dangerous in a “turbulent environment” for people working in international protection and integration.
They said the threat of violence against their employees from far-right extremists was very real and that the decision to withhold staff names was “not taken lightly.”
The department said release of any information could reasonably be expected to endanger safety based on a spate of incidents.
They said: “[There have been] notable and multiple instances of protest and criminality associated with IPAS [International Protection Accommodation Services] facilities.
“In addition to welcome discourse, or peaceful protests that have taken place during this period, the international protection accommodation sector has also had to contend with arson attacks, threats to staff and facilities including threats of fire, animal cruelty incidents, intimidation of people at work, and damage to facilities and staff property.”
They said one staff member had already been ‘doxxed’ on social media with their personal information shared widely.
The department said further information could easily be used to track down civil servants through social media using as little as their name and employer.
They said they would also be withholding the names of staff members in other public bodies that came into contact with the International Protection Accommodation Service (IPAS).
A letter from them said: “There have been several instances of officials from various public bodies having their names, images and job titles shared on social media due to their association with the work of IPAS.”
It said there was a “significant risk” for anyone working in the sector and that even people with a limited involvement could be targeted online.
The department also said they would no longer provide details of the names and locations of centres used for accommodation for international protection applicants.
“Between August 2023 and August 2024, there were 33 recorded arson attacks on current, potential or rumoured international protection accommodation centres,” the department said.
“Others have been subject to protest including criminal damage.”
The department said that while some accommodation centres were well known amongst the public, there were “many which are not.”
They added: “The department has a duty under [international protection laws] to protect and guarantee the privacy of international protection applicants and to ensure that their identity as international protection applicants is kept confidential.”
The government ruled out buying a second-hand executive jet to fly the President, Taoiseach, and ministers around the world saying it was too hard to get a good deal on a used plane.
In a business case supporting the purchase of a €53 million Dassault Falcon 6X jet, officials said buying it would actually save the taxpayer money through its occasional use as an air ambulance and for emergency evacuations.
It said the new jet would also save €500,000 if ministers and officials did not have to wait in queues for commercial airlines.
A further €17.8 million would be clawed back through the “enhanced time period available for work on a private flight relative to [a regular journey].”
It said one of the biggest savings would come from not having to charter private jets, which the Department of Defence believed could cost upwards of €41 million over the coming years.
Overall, the business case said the benefits of buying a brand-new executive jet would come to €113 million – more than double the actual purchase price.
The document was prepared in advance of the purchase saying the government’s existing Learjet had a “deteriorated condition”.
It said: “Owing to serviceability issues, the Learjet is no longer capable of providing [a ministerial transport service], further underlining the urgency of the requirement for a replacement aircraft.”
The business case said a reliable plane would be essential especially during Ireland’s Presidency of the EU in the second half of 2026.
The document said: “Connectivity via scheduled commercial flights to and from Ireland has improved overall … nonetheless, commercial flight options are by nature limited and subject to seasonal influences or availability.”
It put forward a number of options which included buying a new ‘mid-size’ or ‘super mid-size’ jet or getting a second-hand model of either type.
Also mooted was leasing a plane on an ongoing basis, but the chosen option was purchase of a brand new ‘mid-size’.
It did say however, that “the cheapest and most economic option” was to look at a second-hand plane.
However, efforts to find something suitable – and less than five years old – failed, according to the business case.
It said: “As aircraft are typically purchased new and not disposed of for a number of years it was held to be unusual for an aircraft less than three to five years old to be available on the market unless it was part of a distressed asset sale.”
A separate analysis conducted for the department found that the second-hand market was in a depressed state with demand far outstripping supply.
It said one of the biggest problems would be that when a used jet was put up for sale, it was often bought within one hundred days.
“These market conditions were and are viewed to create a challenge for any government, constrained by the legal and regulatory environment of public procurement rules,” the business case explained.
It said efforts had continued to see if the government could pick up a bargain.
The document said: “The project team did continue to monitor the possibility of obtaining a higher capability aircraft second hand for a cost from other governments, that is similar or slightly above what a smaller less capable new aircraft could cost, with no success.”
Asked about the records, a spokesman for the Department of Defence said the new jet would be used for a variety of tasks including evacuations of Irish citizens from “critical situations”, air ambulance duties, medical evacuations, and transport of supplies.
He added: “It will also provide an independent transport service for government, an increasingly essential requirement in meeting international obligations.”
The Irish Prison Service has spent more than €114,000 over the past three years on an empty site bought more than twenty years ago for a proposed ‘super-prison’ that was never built.
The state originally paid a “grossly excessive” €29 million for the Thornton Hall site in 2004 with the most recent valuation putting an estimated price of €6.5 million on the land.
Bills for the site continue to mount however, with the Irish Prison Service spending around €40,000-a-year on its upkeep.
A breakdown of costs between 2022 and 2024 shows expenditure of just over €36,000 on gas network costs.
The Irish Prison Service said that covered payments for maintenance to a “collapsed chamber” on site and was based on instructions given to them by Gas Networks Ireland.
A further €28,000 was paid for electricity supply to ensure power to the main house on the land for security and heating systems.
A sum of €1,599 was spent on a site survey to figure out the boundary of the state’s landholding in North Dublin.
There were €4,832 in water charges and a site valuation report that cost the taxpayer almost €14,000 and found the site was worth less than a quarter of what was paid for it.
Other bills included maintenance costs of around €27,000 “to repair boundary and perimeter security and for planned preventative maintenance.”
There was also a digital security bill of €2,420 for “provision of [a] remote access CCTV system.”
The site was first bought as part of disastrous Department of Justice plans to develop a ‘super-prison’ with the intention of closing down Mountjoy Jail and redeveloping prime lands there.
Thornton Hall lay idle for two decades until the government announced plans for a tented camp for 1,000 international protection applicants last year.
However, that was strongly opposed by local residents and the project was thrown into significant doubt after a High Court challenge.
Asked about the ongoing expenditure, the Irish Prison Service said the Thornton Hall site was fully serviced with significant investment at the time to construct a major access road.
They said a two-year licence agreement had been signed last year for the use of thirty acres of the site for provision of accommodation for international protection applicants.
A spokesman said: “The site remains of strategic interest to the State and the Irish Prison Service has a duty to secure and maintain the site at Thornton Hall.
“The site includes a property which is a ‘Protected Structure’ and which the Prison Service is legally obliged to secure and maintain.”
The spokesman added that a licence agreement has been in place with a local farmer since 2023 for lease of the land which “partially offsets” their ongoing costs.
Costs on the controversial €490,000 reconstruction of a wall by the OPW spiralled as construction stalled for over a year while waiting to have a live power cable dealt with by the ESB.
Internal records detail how the project was due to take less than three months from start to finish but instead ended up lasting almost three years.
A timeline explained how builders were “instructed to stand down” in October 2022 after a live electrical cable was discovered beneath the boundary wall at Lansdowne House in Dublin.
Then, Sensori – the firm that was leading the project – had to wait three months before they could even get a reference number from the ESB to fix it.
An email to the OPW that December said: “I will try and make contact again with the general number for an update. To date, we have contacted three different people in ESB.”
The timeline logged over a dozen emails or calls between October and January 2023 and repeated promises of a response “within two [to] three days”.
A log of one call that January said: “Contact ESB General Enquiries, as no contact received. On Hold again. Reference number given to ESB.”
Work on the wall did not ultimately recommence until December 2023, more than a year after construction was first stopped.
However, the electrical problems did not end even then, and after paying the ESB €54,000 to remove the problematic live wire.
As rebuilding of the wall resumed, work was again suspended following the discovery that another electrical cable “understood to be isolated was in fact still live.”
When Sensori contacted the ESB to ask what had happened, they were told this was not included in the original job specification.
The timeline said: “We followed up with [them and they] advised they did not allow for the full removal of cable and to have this carried out would require another application and second payment.”
Details of this second fee were blacked out from documents and with the project already long overdue, another company was hired to carry out the works instead.
The timeline said: “Considering the time taken by ESB to revert with the original application and given ESB had demanded a further [redacted amount], the main contractor engaged with a specialist contractor.”
Work on the wall was again able to resume but difficulties continued with a chamber for accessing electrical cables still left open in May 2024 and fenced off to protect the public.
A note from July last year said: “Meeting on site with ESB to review draw pit and backfilling with a view to removing barriers.”
More than €10 million was spent by the state in the case where they fought not to accept €13 billion in back tax from Apple.
The payments cover a period of almost twelve years with nearly a third of the money, some €3.5 million in total, paid to the legal firm William Fry.
Other large sums included €757,000 to barrister Barry Doherty, €788,000 to Paul Gallagher SC, and €820,000 to KC Philip Baker.
Release of the records was delayed for several months as the Department of Finance said they had to carry out third party consultations.
In late November, Right to Know had to seek internal review as a decision had still not issued.
The department release the records on January 23 saying they felt the public interest outweighed the argument that details of the expenditure was personal information.
A briefing for the boss of the IDA said the agency was prepared to work with any political party including Sinn Féin and that the Irish media were disproportionately reporting on protests and disturbances caused by the far right.
Q&As prepared for CEO Michael Lohan in advance of a U.K. media tour explained how the IDA was an agency of the state and would work with any political party that was elected to government.
The briefings were prepared last autumn and in advance of the November general election and said Mr Lohan needed to be ready for questions on housing shortages, Ireland’s neutrality, and rising anti-immigration sentiment.
On the explosion in anti-immigrant hostility, the briefing said Ireland had always been a welcoming place, but that housing and infrastructure pressures were being felt nationwide.
The Q&A said: “Unfortunately when such pressures occur, it provides an opportunity for a small number of right-wing extremists to exploit the situation for their own cause.
“And unfortunately, the media disproportionately report on any protests or disturbances presenting the wrong impression.”
On the shortage of homes, the advisory said that a growing economy with rapid population increase had inevitably led to “significant housing pressure.”
“Our population has grown by 10 percent to 5.1 million,” said the briefing. “Thankfully, the population growth is spread across different regions of the country, which is very welcome from an FDI [foreign direct investment] perspective.
“Housing is the Number One domestic policy challenge facing government and they recognise that we need to be building more houses, in the right locations and at affordable prices.”
An RTÉ assessment of plans to publish details of staff ‘nixers’ said the more a person earned, the more likely it was the broadcaster would “be seen to be compromised.”
It also said an anonymous register would not be enough to satisfy the public and could lead to a “witch-hunt” over who got paid what and a risk of somebody being wrongly identified.
The data protection impact assessment (DPIA) was prepared as part of RTÉ plans to publish a detailed register of external activities.
It explained how a new register was needed so that there was full oversight of how many outside gigs staff were doing and how much they were being paid.
The DPIA said: “[We need] this information to ensure that any conflicts of interest that may arise, or have already arisen, can be identified promptly and swiftly resolved before any reputational damage occurs that affects RTÉ.”
The broadcaster’s plans to make public full details of outside activity came unstuck however, after the Data Protection Commission warned complaints or enforcement were likely.
RTÉ had originally refused to release a copy of the data protection assessment under FOI laws saying discussions were still ongoing with government over new laws to allow more complete data be published.
However, the document was released this week as the broadcaster acknowledged there was “little chance of the legislation requested … happening anytime soon.”
The assessment said a register of external activities was crucial for more “effective management of conflicts of interest.”
It said while staff were obliged to declare outside earners, they needed to standardise the approach right across the organisation.
However, it did acknowledge that there could be a risk to “the rights and freedoms” of people whose financial information was listed online.
It explained how a new process would be put in place whereby at least three managers would review each application for outside work.
The document added: “A dedicated oversight group … will be entrusted with reviewing all decisions (including rejections) across RTÉ every six months.
“[This is] for the purposes of monitoring, assessing and evaluating decision-making over a reasonable period of time.”
It said only once-off activities like speaking engagements, promotion of commercial ventures and brand ambassador work needed to be declared.
Other outside work like membership of local clubs, volunteering in charities, or cases where a journalist was asked to contribute to another broadcaster did not need to be declared.
It added: “In circumstances where RTÉ employees and contractors engage in external activities without the necessary approval, it may result in disciplinary action.”
The original plan was for a register using bands of no payment, payments up to €3,000, up to €6,000, and up to €10,000.
For the rare events that were worth over €10,000, RTÉ was planning to publish the “exact amount” in each case.
The assessment added: “The effective achievement of these objectives is significant where RTÉ, as a public service broadcaster funded by the taxpayer, has publicly committed to enhanced transparency and openness.”
It said that “recent controversies” had put their work under the spotlight which meant “stronger governance and controls” over outside earners.
“The dataset collected is not excessive, nor is it intrusive (being directly volunteered by individuals),” the assessment said.
It also concluded that labelling events as either ‘paid’ or ‘unpaid’ would not be enough as the “quantum of payment goes to the strength of the conflict [of interest] that may be presented.”
The assessment added that companies and other third parties would become less likely to offer nixers to RTÉ presenters knowing details would be public.
“As the nature of the activity and the name of the individual are likely in the public domain (given that most of the activities are public events), the impact on the individual is (in reality) minimal,” it concluded.
It said RTÉ had rejected the idea of having an anonymous register saying it would not “give the public sufficient information.”
“[Publishing] on an anonymised basis could inadvertently lead to a ‘witch hunt,’ with individuals and third-party media outlets speculating on (and potentially misidentifying) who is engaging in external activities,” the assessment added.
A Department of Finance research paper warned the government needed to be cautious about increasing the rate of stamp duty that applied for the bulk purchase of homes.
Research by officials said a plan to hike the 10 percent rate that applied for the purchase of more than ten homes could drive out international investment that was needed to make property development viable.
It said that while the state was providing an “unprecedented level of funding” into housing, it still would not be enough by itself to meet Ireland’s ambitious housing targets.
The paper said private investment was especially important “at development stage to ensure the provision of social, affordable and private homes.”
It said if policy and rental regulation policy was constantly changing, international investment would be put off by “uncertainty and increases [in] risk profile.”
The paper added: “The mislabelling of institutional capital with the pejorative ‘vulture funds’ is also seen as a further deterrent for institutional investment.”
The research was prepared in September after Taoiseach Simon Harris wrote to the Department of Finance last May looking for a review of stamp duty on bulk purchases.
Mr Harris said figures had shown the number of houses subject to the 10 percent stamp duty rate had risen from 181 to 623 in 2023.
He wrote: “I believe we need to take further action, but we need to base that on good information.”
In the research carried out, officials estimated that the higher rate had applied to around 1 percent of residential property transactions in 2023.
They said this equated to 3 percent of sales of new homes completed that year with €44 million collected in tax by Revenue over a twelve-month period.
Civil servants were told to print out official records and use a black marker before scanning them again amid fears of sensitive material being released.
In the aftermath of a major data breach in 2023 where the PSNI accidentally released the details of around 9,500 police and staff, public sector workers in the Republic looked for advice on how to avoid a repeat.
A cross-government group was told the risk around redaction now “comes up regularly” and that it was not uncommon for people to try and “un-redact” material that was sent to them under FOI and other laws.
A presentation said this had already resulted in the inadvertent release of “sensitive personal information” of third parties.
The documents explained how the Information Commissioner – which decides on FOI cases in Ireland – had asked public bodies to look closely at how they blacked out portions of records.
One slide from the presentation in November 2023 said: “[It’s] important that redaction tools, particularly electronic ones, are permanent and irreversible.”
It said there was no standard way of doing this and it depended on what tools were available in each public body.
The presentation advised: “[It] can sometimes be necessary to print and use a black marker.
“When this is not possible and if other tools weren’t available, material could be overwritten or deleted then rendered to [a new computer file].”
It said public bodies needed to be particularly careful of redaction that only hid material and did not erase it.
Asked about the discussions, a spokeswoman for the Department of Public Expenditure said the massive PSNI data breach had illustrated the need for “robust safeguarding of sensitive exempt information.”
She said: “To preserve the integrity of the system and ensure access to information to the greatest extent possible, it is important that public bodies can effectively, efficiently and reliably protect sensitive information identified as exempt under the legislation. “[This includes] private information of third parties, which in turn facilitates the release of other parts of the same records.”