John Brady (Wicklow, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I agree with that approach. I thank the Minister for his opening statement. The report of the Commission on the Defence Forces is a comprehensive report and key elements of the report need to be implemented. It will certainly go a long way to addressing many of the challenges and difficulties within the Defence Forces around pay and retention, which certainly needs to be done with immediate effect. One of the primary and key asks in that report, and of the representative bodies, is the right to affiliate with the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, ICTU. Given the upcoming pay talks, I believe that this needs to be acted upon immediately. I preface my contribution with this request. I ask the Minister to give serious consideration to it. The representative bodies have continually asked for it, and I too have sought it. It is a key recommendation within the report, as is the issue around the working time directive, which is a major issue that also needs to be addressed. I do not see anything in the Estimates here in this regard, even as an initial attempt to start trying to record the hours that the members of the Defence Forces are actually doing, without fully implementing the directive in full.

I will deal with Vote 35 first. There is not a lot that I have to say on Vote 35 other than on the post-1994 contracts. I welcome that some movement has been made around the huge difficulty this creates for members of the Defence Forces and the future they see for themselves within the Defence Forces. I am aware there are still issues that need to be resolved, for example with regard to sergeants. I note there will also be a knock-on effect for pensions. Will the Minister give an overview as to where that situation is and what agreement has been reached on that long-standing issue with the post-1994 contracts? That is my first question.