Willie O'Dea (Limerick East, Fianna Fail)

That remains to be decided. We have quite a few concessions so far, but the recruitment, the acting up and the limited number of promotions are all absolutely vital. We will have decisions on that very shortly. The budgetary process is only beginning today with regard to Cabinet meetings.

The conditions of the Army have improved out of all proportion in the last ten years due to investment in training, infrastructure, quality of personnel, equipment and so on. This has happened because the Government has invested a great amount of money in the Army. At the moment, we have a crisis in the public finances. Every Department has to take its share of the pain. We do not like taking it, as we would prefer to be spending money rather than cutting back. We all want to be liked, but I know of Deputy Deenihan's claim to be in favour of public expenditure reductions. Which proposals from the McCarthy report that deal with defence does he favour?

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