Paul Kehoe (Wexford, Fine Gael)
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In regard to the children's hospital overrun, the defence budget will not be affected in any way. In regard to CASA replacement, we are not diverting funding from any other budget. Regarding the capital overspend, I do not have that information to hand but I will have it forwarded to the Deputy. On Operation Sophia, there is a review under way of the mission. The UN has granted an extension of the mission. When I get a full brief on that, I will make a decision.

I will be in New York at the end of March to meet Mr. Jean-Pierre Lacroix, UN Under-Secretary General, and that is one of the items on the agenda.

The Secretary General, the Chief of Staff and personnel from the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform met the Low Pay Commission this morning. I will get a full update from my officials on that meeting this evening. I do not want to be specific about a timeline or tie myself down to it because the commission is fully independent. It is not up to me to tell it when to report. Nor is it a matter for the Minister for Finance and for Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputy Donohoe, to tell the commission when to report. I would, however like to hear as soon as possible. The commission has a job of work to do. I am aware there is a huge amount of work going on. There are face-to-face interviews and an online questionnaire for members of the Defence Forces.

There is no delay whatsoever in recruitment. A recruitment competition planned for the Defence Forces envisages some 800 new entrants being inducted across all services and competitions in 2019. The Naval Service general service competition closed on Monday, 21 January 2019, with 969 applications currently being processed. The cadetship general service recruitment competition will commence shortly. The aircraft apprentice technician competition is expected to launch in quarter one, but details are yet to be confirmed. The Naval Service continues to recruit direct entry officers for bridge watchkeeping, marine engineering and electrical engineering roles. The Defence Forces are also accepting applications from qualified doctors for careers in the medical corps.

In addition to traditional recruitment methods, a range of alternative recruitment approaches are being developed. These are aimed at addressing vacancies in specialist areas. A scheme has been introduced that permits former officers with a specialist skill set to re-enter the Permanent Defence Force. Arrangements are in train to provide a similar scheme for former enlisted personnel. This will take legislative changes. Currently there is a direct entry provision for those with professional qualifications, which is utilised in the recruitment of medical officers and engineers. A working group is examining the scope for greater use of such direct entry recruitment for certain specialist positions.

The recruitment process is carried out by the Defence Forces. They are responsible for promoting the competitions and the processing of applications. The military authorities advise that targeted medical campaigns using traditional methods of social media, cinema and print will continue to be used in the upcoming recruitment campaigns. An additional €50,000 has been allocated in 2019 for recruitment advertising campaigns. This will bring the total up to €295,000. A variety of recruitment initiatives will be undertaken throughout the year, including local and national outreach events to attract young people to the competition process. The recruitment process itself is monitored and appraised on a continuous basis to ensure it remains fit for purpose.

To complement this approach, it has been decided that the Department of Defence, in conjunction with the military authorities, will review all elements of this process. This work is in the very early planning stages. I have looked for a review of the overall recruitment process - similar to the review I had carried out for the conciliation and arbitration scheme - where an independent person who has absolutely no involvement in the Department or with the military will come in to look at the process in an objective way. I believe it is very important that we look at this by bringing people in from outside. If there are lessons to be learned it is important to have such a review.

The most important issue from the recruitment perspective is that there is funding for 9,500 Defence Forces personnel in total. Under the public service stability agreement we are fully funded for all pay increases, support and operational costs, an increase in capital spend on essential equipment and infrastructure up to €29 million, with an additional €10 million for Army pensions, to fully fund the Vote.

This has been something I have wanted to address since my appointment in 2016 because I was quite concerned that there was a shortfall in the pensions Vote. I am delighted a commitment last year from the Minister, Deputy Donohoe, which he fulfilled, means that we were fully funded for the pension deficit. There will be no delay on recruitment whatsoever and I will come back to the Deputy on the other issues. All savings arising will be retained within the defence budget. When I come back later in the year with Revised Estimates I will then set out exactly where that will go. We are spending more than €1 billion on defence. This is the first time ever that we went over €1 billion. It shows the commitment by Government. We absolutely have challenges and we will continue to have challenges, as does every other Department and organisation.