Willie O'Dea (Limerick East, Fianna Fail)

The Defence Forces have improved in every respect since 2000 through the implementation of the White Paper. This represents a significant public service success story and has been acknowledged by both the Taoiseach and myself. Arising from the White Paper on Defence, we have created modern, well-equipped Defence Forces capable of meeting the needs of the Government and the public and ensuring value for money.

The White Paper on Defence set out a figure of 10,500 personnel for the Permanent Defence Force as the strength sufficient to deliver on the roles laid down by the Government for domestic operations and to provide a sufficient pool for rotation for overseas missions in addition to maintaining sufficient depth across the required range of skills.

The strength of the Defence Forces at 31 October 2009 was 10,013. This reduction has resulted from the moratorium on recruitment and promotion in the public service introduced by the Government in March of this year. I am acutely aware of the impact of the moratorium on the Permanent Defence Force, particularly in light of the very high turnover rate that is part of any military organisation. I am addressing the impact of the moratorium with my colleague, the Minister for Finance.

The Deputy will be aware that discussions are ongoing with the public sector trade unions affiliated to ICTU about mechanisms to deliver the required savings of up to €1.3 billion in the public sector pay bill in 2010. Discussions are also taking place between officials of my Department and the associations representing members of the Permanent Defence Force in parallel. While I would not wish to anticipate the outcome of these various discussions, it is my view that any agreement reached will apply across all sectors of the public service. In the context of the adjustments required in 2010, I do not, therefore, foresee scope to offset a reduction in numbers against pay levels within the defence sector specifically.

Planned expenditure levels for my Department will be considered as part of the Estimates and budgetary processes for 2010. This will include consideration of the McCarthy report, and the decisions on all of the issues arising will be a matter for the Government. It would, therefore, be inappropriate for me to comment any further at this stage pending the outcome of these deliberative processes.

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