Lisa Chambers (Mayo, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I apologise for being late. I was in the Chamber. I very much welcome the increased expenditure on the Naval Service and clearly it is required given the other three vessels we own are approximately 30 years old, which is quite old.

I have a concern about how it is to be financed. It says in the documentation that it is being offset by an underspend in two other subheads. A saving of €23 million is to be made in Permanent Defence Force pay and a saving of €5 million is to be made in civilian employees' pay. I have raised with the Minister of State on a number of occasions my very real concerns about our failure to reach a personnel level of 9,500 within the Defence Forces. We do not seem to be getting any closer to that level. If I am correct, the current number of personnel in the Defence Forces is 9,110. It looks on paper like a concerted effort was made to make savings so that this shortfall in the pay requirement could be used to offset perfectly the cost of €28 million. Are real efforts being made to hire the additional soldiers needed in our Defence Forces to increase the personnel level to 9,500? Has the strength of the Defence Forces been conveniently maintained at approximately 9,100 to achieve the savings required to pay for the new vessel? It is suspicious that the savings made in the area of pay are exactly those needed to offset the cost of the new vessel. I would welcome the Minister of State's comments in this regard.

It is a real concern that there has been a reduction of €23 million in Permanent Defence Force pay because of our failure to reach the required number of personnel. We are continually under-recruiting. We are not reaching the required levels. I suggest that 9,500 is a very conservative target and that a larger number of personnel is needed in our Defence Forces in light of the precarious international security position, this country's UN commitments, the need to protect international security and defence and the implications that Brexit will have for defence. We are constantly way below the 9,500 level. The Fianna Fáil Party would like that target to be increased to 10,500. We are not even meeting the 9,500 requirement. The two points I am making are linked.

I would like to ask the Minister of State about a completely different topic. What is the level of subvention paid to the representative associations? I would be interested to hear what amounts are paid to RACO, PDFORRA and the RDFRA? I understand that the RDFRA has made a business case to the Department for an increase in its subvention. My understanding is that it receives less than the other two representative bodies. Clearly, it has been severely affected by the problems in recruiting personnel into the Reserve Defence Force. As a result of the lack of recruitment and the dwindling numbers in the Reserve Defence Force, the RDFRA is getting decreased revenues from the member subscriptions on which it relies to fund itself. It is in real financial difficulty because its subvention is less than it should be getting and it is having to deal with reduced payments from members. Will the Minister of State comment on the business case that has been made to the Department? What do the Minister of State and the Department propose to do to deal with the RDFRA's financial difficulties? As the representative association for the Reserve Defence Force, the RDFRA is very much needed.