Paul Kehoe (Wexford, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I will address Deputy McLoughlin's questions first. There are a substantial number of non-pay initiatives and retention strategies that provide opportunities for members of the Defence Forces. The review of contracts is continuing and the Department and the representative organisations are working on that. This will allow those who have served 12 years to extend their service up to 21 years, thereby preventing the discharge of a significant number of individuals who would have had to retire. I told the PDFORRA conference in 2017 that I would review this matter and the Department, the Defence Forces and PDFORRA have worked closely on that. There are a number of other initiatives. There are significant opportunities for career progression in the Defence Forces. To date in 2018, there have been more than 600 promotions in the Permanent Defence Force, and a promotion means a pay increase, quite rightly. This means that one in 15 serving members received a promotion since 1 January.

There are ongoing opportunities to undertake career development courses, and the Defence Forces have made significant inroads towards ensuring that major courses acquire external accreditation, especially the NCO course, which is accredited by Carlow IT. In the next three weeks I will attend the conferring of members of the Defence Forces in Carlow IT. To give the Deputy an example of the possibilities for people, at last year's conferring in Carlow IT, a man in his late 20s came up to speak to me. He came into the Defence Forces with no leaving certificate but he passed it while a serving member of the Defence Forces, and he was then given an opportunity to attend third level at Carlow IT and received a third level qualification there. While people will always look at the negatives, a huge number of positive things are happening as well. Although that example is only one person, there are many more. I was in Athlone yesterday and I met the officer commanding. I asked him how many people he has who are completing their leaving certificate and there are quite a number. There are many other examples in all barracks and installations throughout the country. In three weeks, as I said, I will attend Carlow IT, where close to 300 members of the Defence Forces will receive a third level qualification. That is paid for by the Defence Forces and is an investment in the Defence Forces, and these people can then use their qualifications to develop themselves further but also to develop Defence Forces organisations.

There are ongoing opportunities for individuals to apply their military skills at home and overseas, which is a key motivator. This year, at the end of November, we will be sending a full battalion to UNIFIL in Lebanon. There will be more than 100 people with that battalion who have never served overseas before and this will be their first trip. The experience that any member of the Defence Forces gets when overseas, as they will say themselves, is fantastic for their career progression. There are many other opportunities. For the first time in ten years, we will have commissions from the ranks whereby 23 or 24 enlisted personnel will become commissioned officers of Óglaigh na hÉireann. This will continue to happen, and it is very important that we give such people an opportunity to be commissioned from the ranks. For members serving overseas, if they cannot serve overseas for six months, they can serve for three months and another member can come over in their place to serve for the next three months. This could apply to a father with a large number of children who cannot stay away for that long, or a mother who wants to serve overseas but cannot serve for six months because she has a young family, and where they want to have the opportunity to serve overseas. For members of the Defence Forces who are office based and who might be living in Cork or Galway but working in Dublin or serving in Cork but living in Dublin, for example, they can work from their own home base, that is, from the local barracks, for two to three days a week and they can go to the base where they are serving for the remainder of the week. There are quite a number of non-pay initiatives happening at the moment.

The expansion of our UNIFIL presence will provide for an additional 119 people overseas. The continued deployment of the Naval Service also provides significant opportunities for personnel. There are 620 people serving overseas and that will increase by the end of the year.

Did the Deputy have other questions?