Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I take some of those points. I do not want to repeat my reply to the previous question. Two Departments are involved in this matter, my Department and the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform. We are trying to maintain a Defence Forces strength of 9,500. We are in the process of taking on a significant number of new recruits to ensure we maintain that strength, which obviously will have budgetary consequences. I will insist that the reviews to which we have committed take place. We will consider the outcome of those reviews when they are ready and, hopefully, we will be able to act on them. Many families and people in the public sector and, in particular, in the private sector have needed support from the State in terms of income levels in recent years, for all sorts of individual and, in some cases, very complex reasons. I do not think we should draw broad sweeping conclusions from this particular matter. The issues arising in the Defence Forces around pay and remuneration will be the subject of a review in the not too distant future, and let us await the outcome of that review.

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