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

The commission is absolutely a tool to resolve pay complaints and difficulties. The issue I have is that I want to know what the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform did in contaminating the joint submission made by military management and the Department of Defence. The Minister delayed the process for three months by interrupting the joint submission. I want him to clarify the Department’s role before the submission was made to the pay commission. The issue I have is whether the Department, in effect, muzzled the Department of Defence and military management. If the Minister diluted some of the recommendations and removed some of the serious issues for members of the Defence Forces, there is no credibility to the pay commission because it has not received the data or is not aware of the real-life circumstances of people working in the Defence Forces. We need to clarify what the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform did in removing, adding to or diluting the core information sent in the joint submission from the Department of Defence and military management. The Minister has not clarified the matter today. In fact, he is involving himself and trying to filter and remove some of the core recommendations being made by the other parts of civil and military management. He needs to outline his role in that process. Otherwise, there is no credibility to the pay commission because it is not receiving real-time information on members of the Defence Forces.

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