Paul Kehoe (Wexford, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Over the past three years, less than 1% of funding for the Defence Forces funding has gone unspent. To address Deputy Chambers's specific comments, I will not hand back pay savings to the Minister, Deputy Donohoe. Nor will I tell him at the start of next year that, since we will not be able to use up our full allocation for 9,500 personnel, we will not need it. Maybe the Deputy wants to do that, and that is okay. His party signed up to the Public Service Stability Agreement 2018-2020 when it commenced. Is the Deputy shaking his head to say it did not? It did, though. The Deputy can check the record. His party has agreed fully with the public service stability agreement. He and his party should know that I do not have responsibility for changing core pay.

That is a matter for the Minister for Finance and Public Expenditure and Reform. We cannot, in the mid-life of the public service stability agreement, change core pay in one area. If we do it for the Defence Forces, Deputy Chambers and his party's spokespersons would be the first to say we must make the same change for all public servants, including teachers, nurses and gardaí. It is not open to any group of public servants to receive increased pay as a result of savings arising from lower payroll costs which occur because there are vacancies or, in the case of the Army, numbers are below the establishment of 9,500. This applies across the public service, as the Deputy should know. I have communicated to him on numerous occasions that it is not within my remit to do what he is requesting that I do. The Deputy can shake his head but what I am saying is a fact and it was agreed to by his party when it signed up to the public service stability agreement in 2016.