Women are not being recruited into the Army just to be "politically correct", Minister for Defence Willie O'Dea insisted in the Dáil.
He said that "put bluntly half the population are women but only 5 per cent of those in the Army or the Naval Service and fewer than 5 per cent of those in the Air Corps are women".
He also said he had asked the military to report to him about the height requirement of 5ft 4in (1m 63cm) for both male and female recruits.
During a Dáil defence question on how the Minister planned to recruit women to the Army, Labour's defence spokesman Joe Sherlock asked if he was appealing for more women to join to be politically correct. Mr O'Dea, he said, "claims that a great deal has been done to encourage women into the Defence Forces," and he asked what initiatives had been put in place in the 12 months since he became Minister.
The Minister said that since 1997 the number of women in the Defence Forces had more than doubled from 244 to 524 at the end of last month. He expected replies soon from the Departments of Education and Justice, and a number of outside organisations, about how more women might be encouraged to enlist in the Defence Forces.
Fine Gael's spokesman Billy Timmins asked if the Minister "has any idea why it is difficult to attract females to join the Defence Forces".
Mr O'Dea replied that "to be honest, I don't know the answer". He said: "I don't know why women do not see it as the job for them. Traditionally, that has been the case and fortunately we are trying to change that." Mr Timmins said: "a greater proportion of women are disqualified from joining", because on average women were shorter than men. Mr O'Dea said he had asked the military to look at the issue as he understood the US had a lower limit of 4ft 10in (1m 47cm). "There was a time in Ireland when the lower limit for male recruits was under 5ft (1m 52cm)," he said.
"I have asked the Army about that. One of the problems is health and safety. The Army received medical advice that females . . . are more likely to be damaged by the physical activity in which they are forced to engage as part of their duties in the Army," the Minister said.
