Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Last week, 9 May, the Minister of State's colleague, the Minister for Social Protection, Deputy Leo Varadkar, responding to a question from my colleague, Deputy Pat Buckley, stated that 124 people who stated they were members of the Defence Forces were in receipt of FIS. The figure for the previous year was 127, and it was 49 in 2013. I hope that is helpful to the Minister of State and that he will not have to ask for the figure. The question is already answered.

The key concern is for the families of members of the Defence Force if they are living in poverty and if the members cannot carry out their duty to turn up at their barracks because they cannot afford to buy petrol for their cars or ensure that their families are looked after.

That is the concern. If that continues in a changed economic environment, more personnel will be lost and the crisis within the Defence Forces will get bigger.

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