Mr. Luke Foley:

Traditionally, the unit I am in would have attracted instructor allowance for the officers. When I was in the unit as a lieutenant I would have received the allowance for the long hours I put in and for the qualifications I brought to the appointment.

As unit commander I see our members running courses. I oversee the most common course we run in my unit. We have members in other training establishments but in my unit we run a six-month potential NCO course to train up corporals. I did a survey after the last course we completed. On average the instructors are doing between 56 and 60 hours per week when we take the six-month period into account. In that time they are training and they also have responsibility for oversight. They take on the risk in respect of that course. They are training with my NCOs but they are not receiving the payment that my NCOs receive in recognition of the hard work they put in. It is a fundamental issue for our members affected by it.