Ms Jacqui McCrum:

That is a policy matter. Deputy Callaghan will have seen in this instance what the Air Corps was faced with. As the Chief of Staff said, an outside operator came in and, with effectively an open chequebook, has been seeking to poach our staff. Our staff are very highly skilled and very highly trained and it has caused a significant challenge. While this risk surfaced sometime towards the end of last year, it definitely materialised in the last few weeks. This is why we are involved and the Tánaiste has, on an exceptional basis, developed this and got Government approval for this scheme.

We are faced with this issue across a number of different services. We invest hugely in our Defence Forces and they are very highly skilled. We are faced with that issue in a number of other areas. It is something we will be looking at. A local bargaining process is being undertaken and some of those pinch points may be addressed in that. We are looking at that in conjunction with military management.