Fiona O'Loughlin (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I am pleased to contribute on behalf of the women in the House. I have no doubt my colleague, Senator Chambers, will also speak. I wanted to speak on this matter for a number of reasons but mainly because I come from County Kildare, very close to The Curragh, which is obviously the heart of the Defence Forces.

The Minister is very welcome. It is good to have the opportunity to have a debate on the high-level action plan on the report of the Commission on the Defence Forces. We have been waiting for this for just over six months now and many of us have had the opportunity to speak on it in the past few months. I welcome that the Minister said during his speech that he will come back to the House and there will be the opportunity on an ongoing basis to speak on this issue. What the Minister said about the need for a cultural transformation is crucial and is at the very heart of what needs to be done.

The men and women - unfortunately it is too few women - who are involved in the Defence Forces are key to all of this. They are at the heart of our Defence Forces and our defence policy. We have to ensure that they are treated properly and appropriately. Pay restructuring is crucial as we go forward. How do we do this? The introduction of long-service increments needs to happen. The Army continues to lose recruits, especially at sergeant and corporal level. I understand there are 400 vacancies for sergeants and 300 for corporals at present. If long-service increments were introduced, this would encourage people to stay. We need to look at contract terms for post-1994 sergeants, which is reaching a cliff edge on 31 December when they will take leave for Christmas holidays and will not come back because of the contract situation. That will be significantly worse this time next year. Surely, it is counterintuitive to kick people out when we are trying to recruit people.

Most recruits leave within three years. That is very significant. We need to ensure that everything is done to try to encourage them to stay. In this context, the position of lance corporal holds a lot of promise because if people feel they are valued, then they are certainly more likely to stay. As I mentioned, I am from County Kildare. I am very proud of The Curragh camp and its main training centre, which has almost 2,000 personnel. Very many military families and retired personnel are in County Kildare so those of us who are representatives for Kildare are only too acutely aware of the difficulties that are there.

The high-level action plan has to be a turning point for the defence community. The days of reports and talking about reports have to come to an end. We have to come to an implementation phase that is meaningful, if we are to revitalise our Defence Forces and if we are serious about retaining and attracting people into them. The sticking point that has always held back our Defence Forces has been the lack of money but significant extra funding has been put into the budget for 2023.To go back to the personnel, it must be recognised that while it is all well and good to have the equipment, and we absolutely need to have that, currently personnel in the Defence Forces, who go over and beyond in service to the State, are working for low pay and in poor conditions and battle every day to carry out their duties on a shoestring budget. They have become accustomed to that. I am aware that the Minister recognises that we owe them more than that. We owe them respect and honesty, investment and appreciation. I really hope that the high-level action will deliver on the required transformation.

I will mention briefly the Curragh Camp and the absolute investment that is needed in the physical infrastructure there in the working area and the living quarters.