Bríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

The UN forces are deployed on nine missions in Africa, Europe, the Middle East, the Golan Heights and Lebanon. When travelling abroad, I am often struck by the sense of pride people have in Irish troops and members of the Defence Forces in general. I want to acknowledge the role of many soldiers from Ballyfermot, where I live, in Lebanon. I have often heard them talk warmly about their experiences there. People in the area are very proud of them.

It must be acknowledged that many of the missions undertaken by the United Nations in the name of peacekeeping and humanitarianism are often problematic interventions that back-up the imperialist ventures of one or other country. It strikes me as ironic that we send our Defence Forces to places such as Lebanon and the Golan Heights while, at the same time, we, as a Parliament, sit back and allow the Israeli state to continue illegal settlements and annexations. With their malign influence in the region, the Israelis continue to inflame matters and cause instability and conflict. The greatest thing we can do to support our troops who are at the heart of peacekeeping missions is to support the Palestinian people. I would like to put on the record that People Before Profit Alliance will be supporting the Great March of Return in Gaza which commences on 30 March and finishes on 15 April. During this time Palestinians from all regions of the Middle East will go to Gaza with the keys to their homes. I have one such key in my home which was given to me by a Palestinian family I helped. It is a big, rusty key and on it is written "This is the key of my home in Palestine". Many Palestinians had to flee their homes under persecution and they took their keys with them. The keys are symbolic. The march, too, is symbolic but it is also about standing up to forced settlement in the Israeli occupied territories.

On the report, our Defence Forces comprise many magnificent men and women who have been doing a great job in the Middle East and in the Mediterranean. We are very proud of them but they are some of the lowest paid public sector workers in this country. During the recession, they were subjected to many cutbacks and many of them are still claiming family income supplement owing to poor pay levels. As set out in the report compiled by the University of Limerick, members of the Air Corps and the Naval Service are subject to the same pay and conditions. This report looked at a sample of 603 officers, non-commissioned officers and lower ranks and it shows that poor pay is the key issue. Poor working conditions and low morale is a brain-drain within our Defence Forces. Soldiers have nicknamed Cathal Brugha Barracks in Rathmines "Hotel Rwanda". However, I welcome the announcement that the barracks is to be refurbished.

After ten years of pleading and fighting and more years of families campaigning for increased pay, we must address this issue. We should allow men and women of the Defence Forces to join legitimate, collectively-organised trade unions in which they are given the power, freedom and recognition to bargain with the Government on their terms and pay and conditions. I look forward to the next report having written into it some progress on this issue. The hands of the Defence Forces are tied behind their backs. They cannot fight for these rights or protest but their families, wives and husbands, and retired officers and soldiers are to the fore in saying to the Minister of State and the Department that they deserve trade union recognition and the right to decent pay and conditions. To get those decent pay and conditions they have the right to organise collectively.

I welcome the report and I look forward to better news being contained in the next and future reports.

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