Mick Barry (Cork North Central, Solidarity) | Oireachtas source

I agree with the Minister of State on one point: things in the garden are not rosy - not by a long shot. Before Christmas, I tabled a parliamentary question which took his Department until the middle of February to answer. It concerned the number of days' leave entitlement surrendered by members of the armed forces because those on tours of duty could not carry over untaken leave. A massive 37,610 days' leave was untaken, which by the calculations of PDFORRA is the equivalent of €2.9 million in pay being taken from these workers by the Minister of State's Department. I await his Department to come back to me with figures for other years. This is just one example of the shoddy manner in which our armed forces are being treated by his Department. I have met representatives of the new spouses' and partners' campaign. I assure the Minister of State that they mean business and I think he will be hearing from them more in the weeks and months ahead.

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