Jack Chambers (Dublin West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The reason I asked the question about the representative associations is that PDFORRA stated that it saw more of the Department's officials in the courts than at negotiation meetings. There is a concern that the Department is more concerned with the High Court cases than with honouring and addressing this issue in a meaningful way. PDFORRA states that, as of late June 2018, departmental officials were admonishing the Defence Forces for stating that if they took their claims, that would delay the process of applying the directive. The Department, therefore, was threatening the members and the representative associations taking those claims. That is not the way to negotiate a meaningful solution to this issue.

The White Paper on Defence includes a core issue. Given the retention and recruitment crisis, the directive will never be implemented with the admirable target of 9,500. The Minister of State needs to have a discussion at Cabinet with the Ministers, and with DPER, to look at increasing the numbers to try and materially address this issue by reflecting a greater number in terms of the White Paper because directive will never be implemented with such a target. The Government needs to get real about that and an update on the White Paper would achieve that.

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