John Brady (Wicklow, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses for joining us this afternoon and giving a pretty damning opening statement regarding the current situation of the Defence Forces. If a report that talks about decline becoming irreversible, how there is a refusal to engage meaningfully, appalling treatment regarding pay talks, breaches of EU law regarding the working time directive and how our Naval Service is set up to fail is not enough to set off alarm bells in any corridor, I do not know what will.

The submission stated that we are fast reaching the point where decline is becoming irreversible. Could the witnesses elaborate on that point? I know we have all of the figures here. We have all of the statistics. We know our Defence Forces are about 8,500. Commandant King stated that only about 8,200 of those are deployable so we know we are 1,000 or 1,000 plus below where we are supposed to be. On deployment, there is a figure of 300 there. Could the witnesses address that point? Commandant King went on to ask whether we have reached the bottom. I think this is a very serious question that the powers that be must answer.

Commandant King also said there is a continued refusal to engage meaningfully with the representative bodies. There is a further comment regarding the recent pay negotiations. Commandant King stated that "our members noted with dismay the appalling treatment of the Defence Forces in the recent pay negotiations despite pronouncements by relevant Ministers, verbally and in writing, that there would be parity of esteem and fair treatment." To me, it is very apparent why they feel that way but could Commandant King elaborate on that? He said there were pronouncements by relevant Ministers both verbally and in writing. Could he elaborate on that? What commitments were given?

He also spoke about the number of plans, including the high-level implementation plan. He said that this plan has been allowed to fail by Defence Forces' senior management through a lack of institutional and lack of political will to resource it. He went on to say that to have seven out of 15 projects still behind schedule two years into a one-year plan would be unacceptable at any time but the fact that this is occurring in a Government plan, sponsored and monitored by the Department of the Taoiseach, in the face of the well documented Defence Forces recruitment and retention crisis, is unconscionable.

Regarding the implementation plan and the seven out of 15 projects, could Commandant King elaborate on the projects that are behind schedule and on how important they are in terms of the overall situation within the Defence Forces and the fact that we are still heading towards rock bottom and the decline is quickly becoming irreversible? How important is the implementation plan to all of that?

Regarding the point about the pay negotiations and the fact Commandant King thought the treatment of the Defence Forces was appalling, what are his views regarding the failure of them? Could he comment on the negotiations and the calls for members of the Defence Forces and representative organisations to be able to affiliate with ICTU?

Regarding the working time directive, this is something that is causing significant concern not just within the Defence Forces but across the board. I am dealing with retained firefighters who are in a similar situation.

They are also engaged in legal action over the failure to implement the working time directive. What recent engagement has RACO had on the implementation of the working time directive? Accelerated provisions were implemented in 2019. Where are they? Commandant King said that this has necessitated the commencement of legal proceedings to vindicate the rights of members. Will he give a brief update on where those legal proceedings are?

I will turn to the Naval Service. Commandant King made a comment in the opening statement.