Ms Jacqui McCrum:

Military management would say that almost 80% of the activities are within the working time directive, and that is what the Tánaiste has been advised. However, there is a commitment to bring in the working time directive in full within the Defence Forces. A position has now been agreed between military management and the Department. That has gone forward to the Tánaiste and he has agreed that. We are now engaged with the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment in terms of getting that legislation moved forward. It has taken us some time to get to this position but we are now ready and we have had very constructive discussions with the representative associations in this area. We have also commenced work in this regard. One of the things we need to do is to put in a time and attendance system, similar to other organisations. We are in the process of purchasing a long-term electronic solution to that.