Ms Jacqui McCrum:

I will go back to a question Senator Craughwell asked about pay. As we have quoted, the pay for a recruit is €38,000. For a school-leaver it is €42,000 and for a graduate it is €47,000. Included in that is military service allowance, which is a pensionable payment made for the exigencies of the nature of the work the Defence Forces are required to do, which the Senator has quite rightly stated. In the UK, this is termed an X factor payment, which is paid at 14.5% across the board to the people it applies to. In Ireland, we pay it starting at 27% and going down to 20% and then to a slightly lower rate. There is no doubting the commitment of the people within the Defence Forces and the work they do but there is a benefits package that encompasses more than just the pay. If personnel are deployed abroad, there is a €15,000 tax payment available. There is an additional three days on top of what is given to any other public sector worker. There is now private medical healthcare, which is quite significant. There is also the education and training afforded to personnel. At a certain level, you see very few people without a degree. That is happily given and encouraged. There is an all-encompassing benefits package available. Coupled with that we have gyms and facilities. These are a natural part of the job. People have to keep fit. We have put in state-of-the-art gyms in Kilkenny and Limerick and we are looking to put in another three, certainly to include one in Haulbowline. I believe the others are to be in Casement Aerodrome and Renmore. We will continue to build on that. Those extra parts of the package are sometimes lost in the discussion, which can purely be about pay. That is another point I would like to make.