Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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We are happy to move ahead with investment in Sarsfield Barracks in Limerick. It is one of a number of priorities we want to move ahead with. There has been a delay this year in some of those physical construction works we were hoping to move ahead with because of Covid and so we are now trying to catch up. I assure the Deputy there is no pulling back from that in terms of financial resources; quite the opposite in fact, we are trying to accelerate some of it.

Regarding the commission on defence, we are going to write to each of the political parties in the next few days outlining the six key areas we want feedback in setting up the commission. We will finalise the terms of reference in the next few weeks. We are going to put together a commission of eight to ten people. It will need to have a balance of Irish and international expertise on defence matters. Obviously there is recognition of the need for gender balance as well. We need people who have defence experience in the form of serving in defence forces as well as public service defence experience. I hope we will have an impressive group of people with a very solid chair who can keep this process on time to get a detailed report and series of recommendations within 12 months, as that is the plan. I would like to be in a position to bring that to Cabinet by the middle of next month but if it gets delayed by a couple of weeks, then certainly by the end of next month. This would mean we would be a month ahead of schedule, which is where I would like to be on defence matters. We will also write to the representative bodies to ensure they can also make a written submission before we finalise the terms of reference. I have had some verbal meetings as well with those bodies, and we are opening it up to the broader public to make submissions over the next few weeks. We will try to be as inclusive and as broad as we can in our consultation. Normally I would have a big, two-day seminar with a load of debates about what we should be doing on defence and what the commission should look like. and we would probably do it on one of our university campuses to try to get as much engagement as we can. However, we just cannot do that during the pandemic and, therefore, we must do it both remotely and through written submissions more so than we usually would. We are open to different ideas and perspectives.

On the Naval Service, when one looks at the outturns for 2018 and 2019, the Estimate was lower but Deputy Leddin might find that the outturn is higher than the Estimate by the end of the year. If it is we will transfer money to recognise that. It is important to say we have real challenges in the Naval Service at the moment. We have two ships that should be at sea but are tied up as we do not have the personnel to crew them. We are working hard to address this. Another ship is out for a mid-life service and we want to get it back into operation as soon as possible. We also had an unfortunate fire on the LÉ Niamh, which will delay her return to full service by a couple of months as well.

There have been a few setbacks this year but there have also been some positive initiatives. Last week, in Haulbowline naval base I spoke to our naval personnel via a Skype link and some of them were offshore at the time. I had to explain to them what we are doing with the new retention and commitment scheme that involves them committing to go to sea for 24 of the next 48 months because that is how the cycles work. One does two years at sea and two years on land. That has been received pretty well. We are recognising that we need to increase the monetary recognition of the sacrifices that are required to go to sea because we know there has been an issue with that. I hope that the combination of this service commitment scheme and an expansion of the seagoing tax credit for next year will be attractive in the context of retaining people and also in attracting more people into the Naval Service.

That is a big priority for me and it is simply not acceptable that, while having a White Paper that talks about an eight-ship fleet and the programme for Government of the previous Government talked about a nine-ship fleet, we have so many ships that are not able to go to sea for different reasons. It is hoped we will get back to having six ships fully crewed and operating properly next year and we will build from there to get back to seven, eight and nine ships over time. We will make the necessary investments to do that, on land, in the upgrading of ships and in acquiring new ships.

I have not had a chance yet to meet the veterans associations as Minister. I intend to do that as soon as I can. There are challenges with meeting people in groups at the moment, but I got to know the veterans associations quite well when I was last in the Ministry for Defence. We will maintain the support programmes that are there already and we will look to do more if we can. I would like to consult with the veterans associations to make sure I am in tune with exactly what they are looking for before making any further commitments on that. It is an important part of the defence family. When people leave the Defence Forces, some find it tough. They leave a structured environment, and that often creates pressures that others do not have to contend with. Some people fall into difficult places and we need to make sure the defence family is still intact after people leave the Defence Forces in the context of the supports, comradery and reach we try to have to support them. The veterans associations are the ones who can do that best, so that is a conversation I am happy to have with the bodies concerned.