Mr. Michael Howard:

The Deputy has made a valuable point we will have to take into account. It is not only about a need to rationalise and amalgamate. Many of these payments have titles to which nobody gave any thought at the time because nobody foresaw the public debate now taking place. The Deputy is absolutely right; if we were to go back over the list now, with the wisdom of what has happened in recent years, we would rebadge many of the allowances. When we engage with the association in the medium term I expect some scope for amalgamation but, as Colonel O'Keeffe pointed out, we can only make the system of pay as simple as possible and we cannot make it any simpler than it needs to be. I agree that no particular thought was given to naming these payments when they were established. Much thought might have gone into the conditions under which they would be paid, but what the allowance was called was not something people reflected on to any great degree. Unfortunately it has landed us in the situation we are in now, which was completely unforeseeable. While all of us have different opinions about where to go at times, we would probably all agree the public debate on this has taken place on the basis of little knowledge. This has been unfortunate for the Defence Forces and for the personnel.