Cathal Berry (Kildare South, Independent)
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I welcome the increase in the pension allocation. Some of the language used, that these payouts are non-discretionary and demand-driven, I agree with to a certain extent. We need to realise that the number of people who leave the Defence Forces is within our control. Our preference would be that our service people stay in service, rather than transition into the pension path. There are 13,000 pensioners, and fewer than 8,000 active members of the Defence Forces. Our priority should be to keep people in service rather than to get them to leave and become pensioners.

In relation to the Reserve Defence Force, there is a question mark over how we get it up to strength. I think the solution is very simple. It is provided for in legislation and in regulation already. Members of the Permanent Defence Force, PDF, who are retiring should just be able to slip seamlessly into the Reserve Defence Force and populate that, should they wish. It is actually easier to do that because if someone is leaving the Defence Forces they have to be out-processed and hand back all their kit. All they need to do is transition to the Reserve Defence Force. In fact, the Reserve Defence Force units are actually embedded in the Defence Forces. For instance, in the 3rd Infantry Battalion in Kilkenny, most of the companies are Permanent Defence Force and one of them is Reserve Defence Force. People could even stay in the same unit. For example, when I left the Permanent Defence Force, nobody asked me whether I wanted to move to the Reserve. While it is provided for in legislation and regulation, there is no mechanism to do so. We could repopulate and regenerate the Reserve Defence Force within 18 months if that system was brought in. Then the Reserve Defence Force could be deployed overseas because it contained former PDF members. That is a very plausible solution.

When a pensioner dies, generally speaking, their pension continues to be paid for about one or two or three weeks afterward before it is stopped by the people in Renmore and rightly so. However, they generally write a fairly curt letter to the deceased family. There is not even an expression of sympathy for the passing of the pensioner. The letter just mentions if an overpayment was made and arrangements for reimbursement for say, €300. The deceased is referred to in very curt terms. Is it worth splitting hairs over €300, particularly when families have paid for funeral expenses? There is probably no need to recoup it in the first instance if it is just a couple of hundred euro. If there is a need, perhaps the standard letter could be made a bit more humane.

It would make a difference. That is all I have to say about pensions.