Lisa Chambers (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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There is clearly continuous structural under-provision for pensions, and one is required to make gains or savings across the Defence Forces budget. We are in a situation in which the Defence Forces are effectively cannibalising themselves because they are making savings on an annual basis. Operational capability is skeletal now. The Defence Forces are being pushed constantly to make savings. The Department is structurally under-providing for pensions knowing it will get money from the defence budget because it is not recruiting up to the personnel ceiling of 9,500 and it is not willing to plan ahead and achieve those numbers even though we know every year there will be a shortfall in the numbers. The Minister must have an idea where these savings across these overheads that we are going to achieve later down the line will come from.

The Estimate purposely under-provides for pensions in the knowledge that the money will be scraped off somewhere else. That is having an impact. I have no further comments to make, and I do not expect a response. I have outlined what appears to me to be the case, and I have not got a satisfactory answer today to suggest otherwise.