John Brady (Wicklow, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Yes. I am just looking for the Tánaiste's view. According to the plan, the then Minister agreed broadly with these recommendations.

My next point relates to the commission's report but also ties in with one of the major issues within the Defence Forces. The Tánaiste highlighted that there had been significant improvements in terms of pay. He stated that a private might start off on €36,000. However, many members of the Defence Forces tell us openly that they are working 70-plus hours per week. Let us break that down. If they are working 70 hours per week, it means they are getting paid less than €10 per hour.

They are getting €9.89, which is below the minimum wage, but we do not know how many hours they are working because that is not recorded. There is no mechanism to record the number of hours worked. All we can go on is what members of the Defence Forces tell us, and I am certainly not going to second-guess them. One recommendation in the commission's report, which I raised with the Tánaiste on the floor of the House last week, relates to the implementation of the working time directive - a key ask of members of the Defence Forces. It was stated in the Government's response that within six months of it accepting the report, it would bring forward the heads of a Bill to implement that directive. What is the status of that and when will see the heads of a Bill to transpose the working time directive? It was stated last week that the Tánaiste had met some of the representative bodies regarding the working time directive. Will he update us on those conversations? When is it expected we will see the full implementation of the working time directive? We are dealing with the Estimates for this year but they contain no mention whatsoever of the directive. What immediate plans are there to record the working hours of members of the Defence Forces?