Lisa Chambers (Mayo, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The next issue I wish to raise brings me to the Permanent Defence Force, PDF, allowances. In this context I wish to comment on the record on the outstanding work of the Defence Forces in respect of Storm Emma. So many of our soldiers went above and beyond the call of duty and worked day and night. I am sure they are still recovering and still quite tired after the work. I know some of them are still out on the ground assisting in various communities throughout the country. In times like these when we see a red alert warning and a potential national disaster, when there is a real threat of loss of life, we see the huge value and the importance of our Defence Forces, how much we really need them and that they are there at the drop of a hat in the worst of conditions. When everyone else is locked up in their homes staying safe, they are out helping people, bringing medical staff to hospitals and freeing people stuck at the sides of the roads.

This brings me back to the area of pay and conditions and members' allowances. The notion that a serving soldier who does a 24 hour duty would get in or around €20 has not been addressed yet and needs to be addressed. I understand the pay review that is ongoing - I know all that - but the Defence Forces are different from other public sector workers, and this has been recognised in other jurisdictions. Take, for example, our closest neighbours in the UK, where a military covenant is in place and the state, the government and society as a whole recognise the defence forces' very special and unique work and role and the fact that they are limiting their own rights as employees because of the work of the defence forces. They do not have the right to strike and their work is extremely demanding and can often put their lives in danger. On that note, we must look at our Defence Forces as a separate and distinct entity within the Civil Service and the public service. The €20 they get paid for a 24 hour duty needs to change. I do not care how we go about doing so or what needs to be done to make it change, but that level of payment in itself is nothing short of a kick in the teeth for those who serve their country. It is one of the reasons we are finding it hard to hold on to personnel.

Regarding the allowances, and I refer specifically to subhead A4, PDF allowances, there is only an increase of roughly €100,000. The Defence Forces as an organisation have been trimmed and slimmed as much as possible in the wake of the financial crisis of 2008 and every year since then. They have pulled back and made savings and efficiencies to the point that they can go no further. They have probably gone too far, actually. While their salary is one aspect of their pay, their allowances are a very vital other aspect, and it is in the latter area that we can make huge changes and alleviate some of the pressures on Defence Forces personnel and their families. I see the Estimates for this year are pretty much the same as last year's. If we are talking about taking in additional personnel and saying we now have more personnel on the books, even to stay at the same strength we would need to see a greater increase in spending on allowances than what we are seeing for this year. Salaries are a difficult thing to move on and they are moving slowly in the right direction. However, allowances really formed part of personnel's overall pay. They became reliant on them, and I can understand why. It is these allowances that were cut to nothing.

Will the Minister to look at the Estimate for this year for the allowances and see what we can do for our Defence Forces personnel in this area? I appreciate the difficulties around public sector pay but I think a pay commission in the context of the Defence Forces would be worth exploring. We do not need to reinvent the wheel. We can look to our colleagues and neighbours in the UK. They have done this and they recognised that the defence forces, their armed forces, are a unique entity among public sector workers and that the sacrifice they make needs to be recognised separately.

I will go on. I have other questions. Would the Minister of State prefer me to-----