John Brady (Wicklow, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Subhead A3 relates to pay, which I have touched on. In terms of associate membership of ICTU, the Minister himself acknowledged that time is ticking away, as the public sector pay talks start in May. As a result, a decision will have to be taken very quickly to ensure that the representative bodies can do their work in advance of partaking in those discussions. I impress again on the Minister the importance and urgency of making a swift and correct decision to allow the associate membership to proceed. Unless we get this right, everything else we discuss, such as sustainability in terms of retention and the development and growth of the Defence Forces will result in us being back here year in, year out. I impress on the Minister the urgency of dealing with the issue.

The Minister mentioned legislation is needed on the working time directive. He said that is the responsibility of another Department. Could we get a sense of how that is progressing? Is there a sense of urgency in regard to it? Has the work commenced to draft the heads of a new Bill? The Minister might give an indication on progress.

Subhead A4 relates to allowances. There has been much talk about allowances and issues that need to be addressed to deal with the shortfall in income needed, as members of the Defence Forces would perceive it. I wish to touch on two areas, the first of which is the specialist instructor allowance, which is a critical one for specialists who are essential to the Defence Forces. They keep the operation on the road in terms of rolling out specialist training courses and in terms of participation in overseas missions etc. Will the Minister tell us where that is at? It is my understanding that a proposal had been arrived at within the Department, which was sent to the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform and, unfortunately, it has not resurfaced in terms of a decision on funding the proposal on the allowance. Could the Minister give us some indication of the exact status of the situation?

The second issue I want to raise is the sea service commitment scheme, which has been in operation for more than a year. Has an analysis been carried out on how it has been received, how successful the Department believes it is and the level of uptake? Could the Minister provide numbers on how many members of the navy have been included in the scheme?