Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I appreciate the Minister of State's answer. It presents a very rosy picture. The Minister of State stands up here and says on the record of the House that pay for a 3 star private, which is the starting rank for enlisted personnel, is €35,000 gross while pay for the average able seaman, which is the equivalent rank in the Naval Service, is €37,000 gross. I do not know if that is the experience based on an average working week of 39 hours because if we examine those figures more closely, we will find that most people who are within the services are working far in excess of 39 hours per week. When we annualise the hours and the average hours per week worked for the salaries that are being articulated here, the picture is far more stark than the one presented to us by the Minister of State. I have an example involving a soldier with 20 years service who got an affordable house with a mortgage ten years ago. He has a monthly mortgage payment of €700 and two daughters and receives €500 per week on average from the Defence Forces. He is applying for family income supplement. No soldier or member of the Naval Service or Air Corps should have to apply for family income supplement. That is the point I am making. There is a gap somewhere between what the Minister of State is telling us and the reality for soldiers on the ground. I do not want to be too rhetorical about this. I want to give the Minister of State a chance to deal with this issue and I think we have given the Government a fair wind to deal with it. I know of soldiers who are taking home €300 per week. The military allowance of €120 is being used to make up core pay when it should be additional pay. There are all sorts of issues there. Every Member of the House could come before us with individual examples of soldiers in their constituencies or members of the Defence Forces but I still believe there is a lot of work to be done by Government to make soldiering and working in the Naval Service or Air Corps something to be proud of. The rates of attrition are due to the fact that basic rates of pay are too poor.

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