Catherine Callaghan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Minister for attending. I am heartened by the launch of the national maritime security strategy. It was a very good launch yesterday. My compliments to everybody involved in putting it together. I know it was a long body of work.

To follow up on and support what the Cathaoirleach said about our remit, I acknowledge that this is the first time there has ever been a committee for national security, and we probably need to put that back out there. We are in an increasingly volatile geopolitical situation and it is rapidly evolving. I would definitely want to see our remit increased and expanded. I would also be laying down a marker for the Government in the next term, whoever will be here, to really think about having a separate defence committee and a national security committee in its own right, with the appropriate intelligence vetting and everything else, so matters of national security can be discussed in confidence in a secure environment. We do not even have a SCIF location in this State, or that is my understanding. We are really behind in that regard.

That is nobody's fault necessarily, but it is something that needs to be addressed in the long term.

To get back to where we are today, I will start with Minister’s opening statement. I love to see the ambition and the desire to ensure that the Government is fully committed to the continued transformation of the Defence Forces, and to ensure it is an organisation that is capable of defending the State. For the context of that, it is fair to say that there is no country in the EU that is capable of defending itself on its own. Ireland gets an awful lot of criticism for not having the capabilities to defend itself. No EU state can defend itself on its own. Otherwise, we would not have 100,000 US troops on the Continent of Europe helping the defence of the countries which are involved in NATO.

We have a challenge in terms of recruitment and retention. Ireland is not on its own in that regard. That problem exists in all defence forces across Europe. It is not fair or right to be overly critical of our Defence Forces or our Department of Defence. This is not a specific difficulty for Ireland; it exists across Europe.

The war on the Continent of Europe is increasingly changing and evolving. My focus is certainly on hybrid attacks. We really need to have a larger focus on how we are looking at our structures in terms of defence preparedness. We have our EU Presidency coming up, but I would not like to just keep that narrow focus on that. I would like to think about what is going to happen after that as well and how we are prepared as a State to defend the citizens in our State. It should never be the case that investment in our Defence Forces is investment in us becoming aggressors. That is not what the conversation is about at all. It is about ensuring that we are prepared to deter and defend if needs be. We need to be prepared for that. There are a few different levels of being defence-prepared or defence-ready. We have our material preparedness, which probably makes up the majority of what is in the opening statement about the priorities we are going to be investing in. That is wonderful and welcome but we also need to be looking at our organisational defence preparedness.

In the revised deadlines, I would really have liked to have seen the chief of defence role coming in. It was initially due in July 2025 for our new command and control structure. It has now been pushed back to quarter 4 of 2027. If anything is to be prioritised, that really needs to be prioritised when we are talking about a change in how our Defence Forces are organised. That is a really key piece. We are looking at a bigger challenge when we talk about defence preparedness in terms of our political defence preparedness, because how do we win hearts and minds? It is not just a Department of Defence challenge or difficulty, it is a whole-of-government challenge to try and get that political defence and preparedness in order that the whole of our society recognises that it is critical that we are ready to deter and defend. While there might be an argument from some that increased investment in our defence somehow negatively impacts or is at the cost of our welfare state, I would argue that, in actual fact, it is investment in our defence and national security that underpins all of the structures that allow and enable our welfare state to function in the way that it needs to.

To get back to my questions for today, I will ask about what I always ask about: cadet pay. There are a number of things we can do in that regard. Our cadets are coming in on €25,000. If somebody has been enlisted, even if they attend recruit training for six months and then join the cadetship, which is actually what is being suggested as a course of entry into the cadetship, they are going to be on €41,000 while in the same class we have people who are on €25,000. They can be up to the age of 39, as we now know. There was an issue raised in the Air Corps last week in terms of the last remaining apprenticeship class, the 80th apprentice class. Its members are actually on a lower scale of pay than their juniors. They entered on a different contract - I accept that - but there is no risk of contagion in that regard. It is a small class, and if was balanced out, that would go a long way toward retention. If we are talking about developing the culture, esprit de corpsand the honour and respect that is given to members of the Defence Forces and encouragement to continue to serve, a step like that, while in the grand scheme of things a small investment, would foster benefit and goodwill and would be an important thing to consider.

I would also like to ask about representation for our chaplains. The Minister referenced Father Murphy who received the medal of honour in Galway last week. It is important that chaplains are fully looked after in our representative bodies. I have about ten more questions, but we might have to come back to some of those.