Regina Doherty (Meath East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am not interested in platitudes and I hope I do not engage in them for the most part. Rather, I am interested in the substance of the actions that have been taken by the Minister for Defence and, by extension, the Government. The significant improvements in pay under the Lansdowne Road agreement and the further increases over the lifetime of the public service stability agreement from 2018 to 2020 are not platitudes. They constitute a substantial action taken by the Government, and we have only been able to take it thanks to the recovering economy.

The Public Service Pay Commission has been tasked with providing a detailed and objective analysis of recruitment and retention in the defence sector. That is not a platitude. It is a tangible target and project for the agency and will reap dividends. The Government has increased the number serving overseas by an additional 100 personnel to be deployed shortly to the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon, UNIFIL. That is also not a platitude but a tangible, substantial increase in confidence in our ability to defend other nations overseas. We are not interested in platitudes. I am sorry that people are parading outside today. It gives an opportunity to me, Deputy Aengus Ó Snodaigh and everybody else in this House to talk about the pride we have in the Defence Forces and instilling a recruitment and retention process to make sure the numbers will be up to what we expect and to also talk about a recovering economy in providing the proper pay and conditions every single part of the public service should be enjoying but which were depleted because of the actions of previous Governments in recent years.

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