Ms Jacqui McCrum:

I will attempt to work my way through them and I may hand over to the Chief of Staff at some point.

On the Air Corps issue and what we have highlighted today, this particular risk was identified by the GOC in relation to the potential for an operator to open on our doorstep, effectively, in Baldonnel, at Weston and there was potential for it to poach our staff. That risk did materialise and certainly job offers have been made. That is the position in which we find ourselves. While several actions had been taken, like addressing this issue through cadets and various other things as the Chief of Staff has outlined, this particular one came to a very acute level in May of this year. The Tánaiste, working with our Defence Forces colleagues and the Air Corps, looked at this commitment scheme which is in place for the pilots and it was decided it could potentially be extended to the air traffic controllers. That was an exceptional item because it initially had been thought we would be able to bring it through the local bargaining process, but because of the acute nature of the challenge we were not able to do that. As to whether that scheme is fit for purpose, the current position - and the Chief of Staff will probably talk more about this - is we have approached personnel to see if it is satisfactory and if they would consider staying. People love the Defence Forces and in terms of their service they are very willing to stay but when there is an open chequebook it does make it challenging.

On the salaries, you are probably talking about a change. It depends. We are going from something where there is a pay band of about €58,000 to €126,000 to one where with the service commitment scheme it will change it from €85,000 up to €140,000. That is quite a significant jump, but there are terms and conditions that surround that and they are being worked through at the moment. Does it include everyone? One of the significant policies we have made only in the coming weeks with the agreement of the Chief of Staff and the Air Corps is that the structure of it would change from an enlisted and officer structure to an all-officer structure. That is what is being worked through at the moment. We have engaged with our representative associations on that and my understanding is they are supportive of this. I am not sure whether the Chief of Staff wants to add anything more and then I can come back to the pension scheme.