Gerard Craughwell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank Mr. O'Driscoll for coming before the committee. I will not ask any questions on the likely outcome of the commission's deliberations. I welcome as well the members of the commission, who are watching. I am aware of the onerous task the commission has ahead of it. A total of 520 submissions is quite a response from the Republic and I am delighted there has been that response.

The commission cannot deal with pay so I leave that and the working time directive aside. I believe those are HR issues the commission may address in its final report. I am interested in the issue of the land component of the Army element. Specifically, the Defence Forces has three services and retention of key Army personnel is a daily negativity affected by geographical disposition of the Army. Since 2012, solders and their families do not receive military housing, rent allowances, soft Government loans or free family medical services, as in other international forces. As such, reliance of military families on housing or land to build homes made available by families or extended families is essential. The historical military personnel over the generations were inducted into military units adjacent to or within easy access of where they lived or came from. The 2012 reorganisation disrupted that.

The strategic military need for the State and its disposition of forces in the immediate and middle future will be north of the line from Dublin to Galway, exactly where the Army has the lowest footprint. The Army supports structure and its disposition of forces are critical for the commission. The structure of the Army, in particular, needs to be finalised by the commission before it begins to address capability, staffing or otherwise. It is the cart before the horse. I would like Mr. O'Driscoll to address these concerns.

Regarding recruitment, the proven conveyor belt for same has been the reserve Defence Forces. The reserve was in every town and village in Ireland until the 2012 reorganisation, which led to the collapse of the Reserve Defence Force. Going back to my youth, on Tuesday night in Galway city, every corner had a group of guys in uniform waiting to go up to the barracks for training. That ran across the entire county of Galway because we all met in the barracks. That is gone and, with it, I believe we have lost a crucial part of the recruitment cohort that were available in the country.

Turning to diversity in the Defence Forces, I noted this week an article in the newspaper on new recruits to the Naval Service being from different parts of the world. Why is a member of the Defence Forces not entitled to Irish citizenship the moment they sign up? If I go to the United States, walk into a recruitment office and sign up, I am immediately given my green card and allowed to remain there.

On the following issues, I am not looking for answers today because I do not think it would be right to. On training locations, if I am stationed in Galway, Cork or Donegal and I want to train to be a corporal, I have to leave my family for six months and go east. That has to be looked at by the commission. On unit culture, I joined the first battalion in Galway in the 1970s and I met my sergeant major my first day in the barracks. From that day on, I aspired to be the sergeant major in the barracks. The sergeant major developed the culture of the unit. Now we have senior non-commissioned officers, NCOs, promoted into positions with a couple of months left in their career. I do not believe it is good for unit culture and I would be interested to know if the commission is looking at that.

On the Air Corps, I and several members outside of here have been advocating for some time for the use of the Air Corps in search and rescue services. The Air Corps is involved in the air ambulance service. Will the commission be looking at and making recommendations on the conflict between military tasking and military-civilian tasking?

My colleague, Deputy Brady, raised issues with regard to the European Court of Justice. The ICTU thing hangs over our head. Will the commission look at the benefits of ICTU membership and compare and contrast such membership with a commission on pay? The last round of pay negotiations was outrageous in the way it ignored the uniformed personnel in this country.

I am sorry for throwing all that at Mr. O'Driscoll. I thank him very much and I really appreciate the time he has given to the committee. I am delighted that he is getting the co-operation that he needed both from the uniformed services and from the Department.