Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I asked the Taoiseach a very simple question: does he accept - yes or no - that there is a deep crisis within our Defence Forces? His reply does not tally with the testimony of more than 600 personnel in an unprecedented piece of research conducted by the University of Limerick. There has been other supporting evidence regarding this crisis. I also asked whether he is satisfied about the health and safety of people working in the Defence Forces, particularly the Air Corps. I instanced some quotations from the research in regard to genuine fears and concerns about the capacity of the Air Corps and safety issues relating to the corps. I ask him, very simply, whether he is satisfied about health and safety within the Air Corps? He failed to reference the shocking failure in the context of the retention of Army personnel. With recruitment, people come in but others are flooding out. I reference Senator Gerard Craughwell's contribution to the Seanad yesterday. The Senator knows a thing or two about the Army, having served in it previously. He said that never in his experience has the Army, the Naval Service or the Air Corps been neglected so much by Government and never have they been at such a low ebb than is currently the case.

We do not need the kind of typical response we tend get in respect of this matter.

What people are looking for - I refer here to the wives of Army personnel and those who have traditionally been associated with the Army - is some sense of acknowledgement of their plight and crisis. We have been raising this matter for well over a year and there is no sense of a solution coming from Government at all.

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