Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

To end on a different point, if we were to draw a graph with the value of the allowance and the number of people earning it, it would have a very long tail as it would slope off to a very low value of allowance earned by very few people. It is the length of the tail which is getting us into difficulties. I will pick out as an example the isolated outpost allowance claimed by 78 people, which is a small number of the total number in the Defence Forces. This is crying out to be reclassified as part of core pay. How do we handle something like this? Some people would consider it part of being in the Army to work in places where nobody else is around for long periods of time and so one should not be paid extra for it. What is the response of the witnesses to this?