Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The minute's silence for peace today was very welcome given the state of the world. I am always conscious of our Defence Forces and our UNIFIL contingent in Lebanon. This is why I am very anxious there would not be an escalation of the situation in the Middle East. Lebanon is very much on the horizon in this regard. At the recent meeting of the European Foreign Affairs Council, FAC, I was not impressed by the Israeli Foreign Minister and his comments in relation to Lebanon and Israel's demands of Hezbollah to withdraw to the Litani river in line with the UN resolution. Equally, Hezbollah needs to calm things down and pull back. It would be horrendous for Lebanon if a new front were to open there between Israel and Hezbollah. Lebanon would be very much the poorer if that were to happen, given what happens in modern warfare. I am very concerned about this issue.

Private Seán Rooney very bravely, in a very challenging situation, gave everything to save others. He lost his life in a criminal act. It is before the courts. We do not want to lose our soldiers. We should value our peacekeepers. That is why it is important that we lose no opportunity to make it clear to Lebanese authorities that our peacekeepers must be valued and their lives must be valued and respected and to Israel and Hezbollah to desist from any attempted escalation of the conflict there.

On the pay issue, opening pay for officers and cadets coming out of school or college is relatively higher compared with other professions. There is a range of allowances, the most recent being the patrol duty allowance, which is now doubled after ten days. There are other allowances across the system. It is part of the public service negotiation process, which means it is subject to the pay rises that happen. We will look at other aspects to see what we can do to improve the situation for more middle-ranking personnel. There have been significant improvements all round, which has to be acknowledged. A three-star private earns €38,000 to €44,000 for post-2013 entrants, corporals earn €44,227 to €48,000, sergeants €47,000 to €49,000, company sergeants €54,000 to €57,480, and sergeant majors €59,227 to €63,000. There is a range of others. We will continue working within the pay agreements to see what we can do. We did something extra this time for the EU battle group which was not there before to try to help people, which we will continue to do in any other areas we can. I will mention accommodation and the health service entitlement.

On the fire service, I am awaiting the report. I have asked for the report of the chief. I think the Deputy picked up rumours. I will be honest, there is definitely a review going on. There seems to be a sense that military leadership has views as to purpose and use and so on. I will await the report and come back to the Deputy then.