Defence Forces to cease training Maltese officers due to staffing crisis

The Defence Forces will no longer train officer cadets from Malta due to staffing pressures, ending a 14-year arrangement.

The Armed Forces of Malta (AFM) frequently sends its troops overseas for training due to a lack of domestic facilities. Since 2009, cadets have been sent to the Defence Forces Cadet School in the Military College in the Curragh, Co Kildare, where they complete officer training.

Over the years, 59 Maltese officers, including seven women, have graduated from the school before returning home to form the leadership corps of the island nation’s 1,700-strong military.

There is currently one Maltese cadet training with the Defence Forces 99th cadet class which is due to graduate at the start of next year.

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The AFM requested a training place for one cadet in the 100th cadet class which began earlier this month. However the Defence Forces could not meet the request due to “the requirement to consolidate training resources at the Cadet School”.

This process is taking place as part of a wider consolidation of Defence Forces operations stemming from the ongoing recruitment and retention crisis. The Defence Forces has an establishment figure of 9,500 but currently has less than 7,700 members

Dwindling numbers have forced military management to withdraw from some non-essential tasks. Some functions are also being outsourced to contractors, including a number of training roles in the Defence Forces Ordnance School.

The personnel crisis has also impacted the resources available to the Cadet School, necessitating the withdrawal of training for Maltese cadets.

A Defence Forces spokesman said the decision was communicated to the AFM by the Department of Defence “who also acknowledged the ongoing mutually beneficial relationship that exists between Óglaigh Na hÉireann and AFM since 2009”.

However, some arrangements between the two militaries will continue. AFM leadership was informed its personnel could take up places on “less resource-heavy courses” such as the Land Command and Staff Course and the Joint Command and Staff Course.

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Maltese soldiers will continue to be attached to the Irish/Polish Battalion serving with Unifil in Lebanon. A small number of Maltese troops are serving with the 342 Irish personnel in the south of the country where over the last week they have had to repeatedly take shelter from exchanges of fire between the Israeli Defence Forces and Hizbullah.

Sources said training of Maltese officers may resume in the coming years if the position of the Defence Forces improves. However this will be contingent on it significantly stepping up recruitment and retention, particularly retention of instructors.

It is understood the decision to end the arrangement with the AFM was also partly based on a report published earlier this year into allegations of bullying and improper behaviour within the school which recommended smaller class sizes.

In recent years, incidents included cadets allegedly stripping their clothes and, on one occasion, inappropriately interrupting a video call between a Maltese cadet and his mother.

One of the report’s recommendations was a reduction in the standard class size from 100 to about 40 cadets. The report’s recommendations have been implemented and the most recent class has 43 cadets.