Mr. Conor King:

I thank Commandant Foley. I believe I have dealt with Deputy Brady's questions. I would be happy to take any further questions afterwards. I would like to move on to Senator Craughwell's questions if that is okay.

The Senator asked why we go to adjudication. We always try to conciliate first and then arbitrate second. That is what the conciliation and arbitration scheme is. In this regard, sometimes I have sympathy for the Department because it always has to refer to the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform for everything. Having said that, however, we feel that the only success we have managed to have after a conciliation and arbitration scheme has been through the zero-sum game that is the arbitration route. It was absolutely disenchanting that we did not even have a third-party adjudication mechanism for more than half of 2020 because they were just not replaced. That was really soul-destroying for our current team as a conciliation and arbitration scheme.

We have also run into some problems recently with regard to readjudications that were initially not honoured. Thankfully, however, we got over the line. I speak specifically about the collection and the military service allowance. Thankfully, that was resolved, and I thank the Department of Defence for that.

The Senator asked why we conduct an exit survey. Our members asked us to do so at a conference a number of years ago because the information was not coming out about why officers were leaving the Defence Forces. We asked management for access to information but it did not come for various reasons, perhaps due to resourcing, turnover, etc. We, therefore, conducted our own survey. The Senator was absolutely correct when he said the findings are quite troubling. They would be very loyal crowd of people. The average length of service of the 103 respondents was 19 years, so it is not as if they did not like the organisation. I would say the sense of burnout, frustration and sadness is palpable in those pages.

We do not like to come in here and say that 30% of our members would not recommend to family members a career in the Defence Forces. That is specifically for reasons like the removal of the supplementary pension provision and not doing anything with the mandatory retirement age. Our members almost have a duty to inform people and that is what we do when we go in to speak to the cadets. The hardest thing in the world for us to do is to tell cadets that they have to retire in their mid to late 50s and will be unable to survive on the income so they have a decision to make.

A question was asked about the specialised instructors allowance. I might hand over to our deputy general secretary, Derek Priestley, to discuss that.