Cathal Berry (Kildare South, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome Ms Sinnamon and I hope she will be a regular visitor before the committee as the process continues. I agree with a lot of the comments that have been made. I acknowledge that some progress has been made in the 15 months since the commission reported. Membership of ICTU for PDFORRA and RACO was a sacred cow. We thought the world would fall in if they ever got affiliated to ICTU but it is business as usual and the sun comes up. It is a classic example of what can be achieved. It was very low-hanging fruit but it makes a huge difference.

There has been good progress for people with fewer than three years' service. There is very little for people with more than three years' service but a moderate improvement for people with fewer than that. This should help with recruitment, probably not with retention but with recruitment for sure.

Three Air Corps aircraft are due in the next two years. One, the Airbus 295, will be here in four weeks' time. This will be a game changer as regards what we can do over the Atlantic. A maritime patrol aircraft is coming in September and a third aircraft will be here in approximately two years' time. This will be the first troop transporter freighter that Ireland has ever had. It will give us great capability for evacuating our citizens abroad. Those are the good points.

The concerns I have are about the pace and I echo the points made by Deputy Carthy and Ms Sinnamon. The pace has been quite slow, particularly when we look at what is happening throughout Europe. Everyone else seemed to scale up their defence capability within weeks of the invasion of Ukraine. We are still very slow and moving at the pace of a snail. This is having an effect. People are looking at our retention rates and asking whether we are serious. We have to demonstrate intent. That is why it is so important.

The concerns I have from a capability point of view are primarily with regard to radar. We were told there would be primary radar coverage soon over Ireland. We are the only EU country without it. There is no legal impediment to it. There is cross-party support for it. There was great razzmatazz and it was announced with great fanfare but it seems to have completely disappeared off the radar, if you will pardon the pun. The key question I have, and the one most people in the committee have, is when will Ireland have primary radar coverage of our airspace like every other EU country. It is a reasonable request. We can get tied up in processes or we can focus on the product. If any project management is being done, there should be an end date or at least a tentative timeline.

The Commission on the Defence Forces also recommended that two new Augusta Westland 139 helicopters be purchased to assist the aeromedical service in Athlone. I am not sure where this project is at. It was recommended but it has not materialised.

My next point is something small but it is important. The reason I mention it is that it is more low-hanging fruit, just like ICTU membership. It is with regard to defence attachés. Every country in the EU bar Ireland deploys defence attachés abroad. We even have an international defence attaché in the Gallery, who is very welcome. We receive international defence attachés to Ireland but we have never deployed one. I do not know where the blockage is. Culturally, official Ireland is apparently against appointing defence attachés. For me, this is important because they are plugged into the intelligence ecosystem. They scan the horizon and provide early warning.

To be frank, Ireland was very poorly prepared for the Ukrainian conflict breaking out. We look at how the influx of refugees and displaced people has not been managed as optimally as it should have been and the cost of energy and business supports. If we had defence attachés plugged into London, Washington and France, our level of preparedness would have been better. Perhaps from a capability point of view, the independent chair could focus on primary radar coverage, the two helicopters and defence attachés. If these were delivered, it would certainly help from a seriousness point of view.

I want to focus on people. The only real metric that matters is the headcount in the organisation. If we want to get a barometer on whether things are improving, we should look at the headcount. Unfortunately the headcount has been dropping consistently, even in the past 15 months. People are losing confidence in the process. There are only 7,800 people in the Defence Forces now. There used to be 10,500. The number has dropped 25% in the past ten years. That is awful. If any other profession was dropping its strength by 25%, it would cause mayhem downstream.

We are going through a tumultuous period in the Defence Forces. Not only have the numbers not stabilised but they are continuing to drop. The Chair will probably back me up when I say that last week in this very room we had a positive meeting with the National Cyber Security Centre, NCSC. Its numbers have doubled in the past 12 months. It was very clear that if we get the premises, the pay rates and the people right, the numbers will increase. If we get the same system in place for the Defence Forces, there is no reason they cannot be turned around. The NCSC pays appropriately and has people properly accommodated in proper premises. There is a sense of purpose about the entity. That is why people want to serve on it and the numbers are increasing. There is a clue there from the Defence Forces point of view.

Ms Sinnamon was good to mention the detailed implementation plan. This is the last chance saloon for the Defence Forces. Will Ms Sinnamon provide any clarity on or indicate when the implementation plan will go to the Government? Will it be published before the Dáil recess on 14 July? We really need to see front-loaded details, as Deputy Carthy said.

I want to highlight an issue with the patrol duty allowance for a military sailor to go to sea. It is set at approximately €60 a day before tax. This is completely unacceptable. It needs to be at least doubled and probably trebled. It can be doubled for the cost of €3 million a year. This is the Jesus nut for the Naval Service; it is the single point of failure holding the Naval Service back. I am sure Senator Craughwell will back me up when I say that if the patrol duty allowance for the Naval Service is fixed, then the Naval Service will be fixed. The numbers will stabilise very quickly and the force will regenerate over time.

We have bought two decommissioned New Zealand ships for €26 million but we have no crew for them. There are already echoes of the e-voting machine debacle. People are saying the ships were purchased because they are smaller vessels and they are easier to crew. If we extend that logic, it would by like saying we should close down the big hospitals in Ireland and build smaller ones to solve the nursing and doctor retention problems. There is a perverse logic to it. Focusing on patrol duty allowance will make a huge difference.

The Army Ranger Wing allowance is a lightning rod for discontentment in the Defence Forces. They are our best troops. A cast-iron pay award was given to them approximately a decade ago which has not been honoured by the Government. If these people were paid properly, the narrative would change throughout the Defence Forces because they would finally see the Government was serious about fixing pay rates.

Long-service increments are also an issue. I fully accept and very much welcome the improvements in pay for people with fewer than three years' service. People with more than that have seen almost no improvement. If we are looking to improve retention rates, the long-service increments, which have been approved by the Government and are included in the Commission on the Defence Forces report and the high-level action plan, need to be implemented.

I want to ask about interaction with the representative associations.

Has Ms Sinnamon met PDFORRA, or Reserve Defence Force Representative Association, RDFRA, and the Representative Association of Commissioned Officers, RACO, one to one? If she has not it is something she should consider if she wants to know what is actually happening on the ground and cut through all of the layers, and to know whether her proposals and policies are actually having an effect. They should be the first point of call.