Seán Ó Fearghaíl (Kildare South, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State. I think this is the second year in succession that he has been here for St. Patrick's week. I do not know whether he is averse to travel or keeps drawing the short straw.

His answer indicates clearly that Ireland's expenditure on defence has been very low as a proportion of GDP compared to other non-NATO members. I would like to explore by way of a supplementary question the impact of the Croke Park agreement on defence expenditure. One of the significant aspects of this is the reduction in pay and allowances for members of the Defence Forces. We explored this at the last Question Time with the Minister for Defence. I put it to him that it was important for the Minister to become an advocate for members of the Defence Forces who had already participated in reviews and reform long before many other areas of the public service did. We talked about allowances and the Minister accepted that they were an integral part of the pay of defence force members. Yet we saw a significant cut that impacts adversely on the lower ranks of the Defence Forces. I think the figures used are 14% for privates and 6% for generals.

It appears the Minister abandoned the commitment he made here, or I thought he made, to become an advocate for members of the Defence Forces and to defend their pay and conditions. Will the Minister of State comment on that and tell us how this will impact on expenditure as part of GDP?

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