John Brady (Wicklow, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank Mr. O'Driscoll for his opening statement and for agreeing to meet with the committee this afternoon. I acknowledge the other members of the commission who may be watching and I wish them well in their work over the coming months. It is critical work. The commission has its work cut out for it.

That more than 520 submissions have been received shows the level of concern in regard to the Defence Forces, as well as the engagement of communities with the Defence Forces. My party colleague, Deputy Clarke, and I have made a submission on behalf of Sinn Féin. While I do not propose to go into all of the issues we raised within that submission, it covers many of the matters touched on my Mr. O'Driscoll, from the Reserve Defence Force to the role of women in our Defence Forces, cybersecurity and the really important issue of pay and conditions, which is one of the core issues facing our Defence Forces. Mr. O'Driscoll mentioned that the commission may not be able to deal with complexity of remunerations in terms of the work it is undertaking.

It is a critical issue which has led to the huge retention issue within our Defence Forces. Numbers are down at around 8,500 members, which is testament to the failure of successive governments to tackle the issue.

Mr. O'Driscoll mentioned the three different stages of the process the commission has embarked on. He mentioned the issue of the identification process. I want to ask Mr. O'Driscoll a couple of specific questions on that. One of the biggest issues facing members of our Defence Forces is obviously pay and conditions, but contracts are also a massive issue. That impacts significantly on recruitment and retention. Since 1994, there has been a huge level of insecurity associated with the Defence Forces and the changes that led to the five-year contracts being issued. Does Mr. O'Driscoll agree there is an onus on the commission to address the issue of contracts post 1994?

I will read a quote which I think is poignant:

We all know that there is a retention crisis. The White Paper target is not being met. PDFORRA has [established] that in the next year, that some 600 to 800 people may leave the Defence Forces. Much of that is based on the 1994 contracts.

That statement was made by Deputy Jack Chambers in 2019, now the Minister of State with responsibility for the Defence Forces. He was also pushing for a review of the 1994 contracts. An adjudicator was appointed in 2015 due to differences of opinion between PDFORRA and the Government. An important recommendation came from the adjudicator at that point that there should be a further review of the service limit for line corporals, privates, corporals in technical grades and so on. Will the contracts form an integral part of the commission's work over the coming months?

Article 6.2 of the European Social Charter states that Defence Forces representative groups have collective bargaining rights. Recent pay talks have found tangible benefits to being associated with the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, ICTU, in terms of securing ancillary benefits. Does the commission agree that, if they so desire, representative groups should be allowed to be associated with the Irish Congress of Trade Unions?

My two specific questions are on the right to affiliate with ICTU and the 1994 contracts. I wish Mr. O'Driscoll and the rest of the commission well in their work and we look forward to, we hope, a process of ongoing engagement with Mr. O'Driscoll and the commission in the months ahead.