Professor Andrew Cottey:

I would make an additional point on the Defence Forces. As everyone here will be aware, one of the big challenges, if not the biggest, is the issue of retention and recruitment and the way that links into pay and conditions for the Defence Forces. That is a very big challenge. I would note that the Commission on the Defence Forces largely did not address that challenge because it was outside its remit. That is still a major challenge and it links into the wider issue of public sector pay and terms and conditions for gardaí, nurses and so on. There are also questions about whether the Defence Forces are a category in themselves. There is certainly a very big piece of work still to be done in terms of pay and terms and conditions in the Defence Forces in order to persuade people to stay and to persuade young people to join.