Jack Chambers (Dublin West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Chief of Staff and everybody else present. It is important that the Chief of Staff come before the committee again in the future as this has not happened before. It is welcome that he is visible in his role in discussing defence policy and accounting to the Oireachtas. It is about receiving feedback and playing a constructive role. Therefore, I acknowledge the Chief of Staff's attendance and opening statement.

The Minister of State was here not too long ago to speak about the lack of recommendations made to the Public Service Pay Commission. Dr. Mellett has said he will not get into the detail of the submission made. The Minister of State indicated that the Chief of Staff had signed off on the submission to the commission. Did he do so? Was he satisfied that no recommendations had been included when a precedent had been set in making recommendations for the Air Corps only a few months previously? I have a copy of his submission in which multiple recommendations were made. Why were they dropped? Was he satisfied that the recommendations had been dropped and will he provide a justification for it?

Dr. Mellett has indicated publicy that he will try to make a plea to the Public Service Pay Commission on behalf of those working in the Defence Forces. As he mentioned, there is a massive recruitment and retention crisis. What is his plan if the commission does not respond with adequate recommendations or a follow-through on the pay and conditions of members? What will happen in that context? Is Dr. Mellett completely satisfied with the submission made? What will happen if the commission fails to address the issues raised in it? We need clarity on whether it was signed off on.

Perhaps he could provide a chronological timeline outlining his input to this joint submission detailing when it was submitted, the level of collaboration involved and why all of the recommendations on pay, allowances, superannuation and pensions were dropped even though there was a precedent for them.

I also want to ask about HR policy. Obviously there is concern about trainee and manning levels within the Defence Forces. Is Dr. Mellett satisfied with the current departmental set up, with the new assistant secretary general for people? Would he prefer a rebalancing to occur whereby he has more responsibility for HR policy and recruitment, mirroring what happens with the Garda Commissioner, for example? In that way, when pay and retention issues arise, Dr. Mellett would have a delegated responsibility for it in a policymaking context, rather than everything being funnelled back to a Department that failed to make recommendations on those matters. Will Dr. Mellett outline his thoughts on that issue?

I ask for clarity on the joint submission. What is the status of the EU working time directive vis-à-visthe Defence Forces and compliance with the European Court of Justice ruling? Why has there been no movement towards application of the ruling since 2010? Who is responsible for the policy deficit in that regard? Is it the Minister, the Department or the Defence Forces? I ask Dr. Mellett to outline the timeline for the implementation of the aforementioned directive in the context of numbers and capacity. Obviously it is not possible to flick a switch overnight. Dr. Mellett mentioned that the Defence Forces have introduced various family-friendly initiatives such as postings closer to home and so forth. Since the structural changes that were made to the Defence Forces a number of years ago, a lot of people are travelling from Donegal, Dundalk, Athlone and elsewhere to Dublin which is anything but family-friendly. That reinforces issues around the working time directive. Feedback from members of the Defence Forces and their representative organisations indicates that these long commutes are a source of enormous strain and are anything but family-friendly.

Dr. Mellett referred to ensuring that personnel are valued, provided with the very best personal and professional supports and are trained and developed to the highest national and international standards. That is Dr. Mellett's aspiration for the Defence Forces as well as the aspiration of his management team. However, there is a serious problem with morale, of which Dr. Mellett is obviously very aware. There are also issues with recruiting trained physicians and medical staff. Individuals have to retire because they cannot get necessary medical treatment. There is obviously a big gap there. In that context, will Dr. Mellett set out his plans to ensure that his words mean something? What will happen at departmental level in terms of his engagement on these issues? In Dr. Mellett's view, what are the key recommendations to address the recruitment and retention crisis? Does he believe that the crisis is solely down to pay and to economic and market conditions or does it run deeper than that? The University of Limerick report mentioned a review of the organisational and management structures of the Defence Forces. Is that required in the context of the deep issue of recruitment and retention?

In terms of defence spending, the Defence Forces support division submitted an analysis note on the recent budget which said that defence spending in real terms is stagnant or reducing. As Chief of Staff, how does Dr. Mellett feel about the fact that his is one of the few areas of public expenditure that is actually returning money to the State even though he is facing a recruitment and retention crisis? What is his view on the fact that the Department is beefing itself up in terms of appointing a new assistant secretary general and increasing staffing levels generally while he is overseeing a recruitment and retention crisis and low morale? Would he like to see defence spending increasing in real terms rather than remaining stagnant or even reducing? Will he provide feedback on the aforementioned budgetary analysis? Concerns were expressed by the support division that every other Department is seeing increased expenditure except for the Department of Defence. The Department seems to be incentivised internally, at a Civil Service level, to return savings to the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform despite the manpower and retention crisis in the Defence Forces. Would Dr. Mellett like to see a change there? This relates to my earlier question about HR policy and how Dr. Mellett sees his role and that of senior management going forward. Is there a need for a rebalancing in terms of his input on spending policy?

I look forward to hearing Dr. Mellett's views and thank him for appearing before the committee today.