Clare Daly (Dublin Fingal, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The proud men and women of the Naval Service will be far more surprised to hear the nonsense the Tánaiste has just come out with than the points I raised in my opening statement. I specifically stated I was not addressing the issue of pay and that the root of the crisis in the Defence Forces was mismanagement at the top level, including at the level of the Chief of Staff, on which I asked the Tánaiste to comment. The crisis was admitted to me by personnel in freedom of information requests over the summer. The Tánaiste went off on a tangent in speaking about Operation Pontus when I specifically asked about Operation Sophia which, interestingly enough, resulted in the rescue of less than half the number rescued in 82 days that the LE Samuel Beckettrescued in 12. It is not a search and rescue operation. The Tánaiste should read the letter written by Médecins sans Frontières which was published in some newspapers today. Defence Forces personnel are sick of being patronised. People with families are being browbeaten to return to duty immediately after returning from a tour of duty. Is the Tánaiste aware of this? Does he think it is worthy of comment? Is he honestly stating pay is the only reason personnel are leaving the Defence Forces and that these issues are not a factor? If he believes that, we are in bigger trouble than I thought.

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