Only 33 female recruits have joined and stayed with the Defence Forces over the past four years, shocking figures have revealed.
This is despite the Government spending amost €1million for a massive recruitment campaign to bolster the number of women joining up.
Currently there are just 596 women amongst a total 8,847 Defence Forces personnel, which has been branded “disappointing”.
Derek Priestley, deputy general of the Representative Association of Commissioned Officers (RACO) said: “The number of women who want to join and stay with the Defence Forces is disappointing.
“Recruitment is not the real problem, it’s retention, and the drive to recruit people is like filling a leaky bucket.”
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He added that there had been only two female pilots in the Air Corps since the 1980s and currently all 76 pilots are male.
And women account for 6.9% of the staff in both the Army and Navy, the Irish Mail on Sunday figures reveal.
The number of women enlisting in the Defence Forces rose by just 0.6% since December 2014, standing at 6.7% which is way below the 10% target set in a 2015 White Paper.
Mr Priestley added: “We are taking in hundreds of people every year, and each year hundreds of people –both men and women – leave for better-paid positions in the private sector, with better conditions.”
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Out of the 95 inductions this year only five are women, according to figures provided in the Dail by the Junior Defence Minister Paul Kehoe.
A total of €919,423 was spent on PR and advertising in order to boost recruitment figures for female candidates from 2013 to 2017.
A spokesperson for the Defence Forces said: “It remains a priority for Oglaigh na hEireann to increase female participation as per the 2015 White Paper.
“To facilitate this, recruitment campaigns in recent years have utilised a variety of methods to encourage female applicants for a career in Oglaigh na hEireann.”
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Out of the 612 personnel inducted into the Defence Forces, only 50 were female.
And in 2017 there were 751 inductions but 742 people left that same year including more than 200 trainees.
Independent senator Gerard Craughwell, said: “Right now our Defence Forces are falling apart before the Taoiseach’s very eyes.”
He added that a total of 166 officers are due to leave this month because they “can’t afford to stay”.
He added: “I appreciate that the pay commission is soon due to report but if remedial action is not taken urgently there will be no soldiers, airmen, and sailors left.”
