Mr. Kieran Brennan:

I will be brief.

My colleague, Mr. Murray, will answer the money question.

I support the idea of a veteran's pin which would be complementary to the areas for which we seek the support of this committee, in terms of an office of veteran affairs and ultimately, a commissioner for veteran affairs. I also want to acknowledge and thank Senator Craughwell's for his comments about Carlow. It is a very innovative approach. I have been at ceremonies in Carlow over a number of years where men and women of Óglaigh na hÉireann have received levels 6, 7 and 8 degrees and some of them had not even completed a leaving certificate. Carlow put in place a system recognising prior learning in the Defence Forces that was complementary to the courses being pursued and our interface with Carlow allowed that to happen.

To answer the question about linking up with various multinationals like Microsoft, Intel, Vodafone and so on, there was no link-up and that was self-serving. It takes a long time and a lot of taxpayers' money to train people in the Defence Forces to the skill levels we require, particularly in respect of delivering services overseas. It is for selfish reasons that we do not get involved with them because we want to hold on to our people for as long as we can. If we were linked in with them directly, we could lose valuable people to them who would be very difficult to replace.

I concur with Mr. Campbell on the pension abatement issue and the fact that the public service is losing out on excellent people. As a former member of the Defence Forces, I want to see our highly qualified personnel staying there and delivering for the Defence Forces and the Irish population.

Deputy Berry asked whether we have linked in with third level institutions in respect of getting students. We have not done so but that is an innovative idea and is something we will consider. If the Deputy can support us in any way on that, we would be very grateful. I will ask our treasurer, Mr. Murray, to speak about money, how we spend it and how our funding comes about. He works three days per week in the Covid centre in Punchestown and has made a huge contribution over there.