Paul Kehoe (Wexford, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

PDFORRA and RACO both participated in the recent negotiations on the extension of the Lansdowne Road agreement which were facilitated by the Workplace Relations Commission. Both RACO and PDFORRA were invited to negotiations which were held under the auspices of the Workplace Relations Commission and were given the full esteem accorded to the non-ICTU associations. The Defence Force representative associations attended and participated at all plenary sessions which were attended by the public sector trade unions, representative associations and management. Senior officials from my Department and the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform and the Defence Forces association had their own meetings which were chaired by officials from the WRC. The issues raised by the Defence Forces representative associations were considered in tandem with those raised by other public sector representative associations.

The Deputy also asked why they are not members. That is something that PDFORRA, in particular, has requested on a number of occasions, specifically in 2002, 2009, 2012 and 2014.

Personnel are the Defence Forces' critical resource. If we are to consider a request for associate membership of ICTU, we must examine the potential conflicts and divided loyalties that could arise where the Government decided to deploy Defence Forces in a situation of industrial unrest.

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