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

A bland dismissal such as that does not rectify the issue. The Minister of State knew damn well last year that it was with the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform and he never informed the House or me. What the Minister of State wanted to do was to say that it is jointly signed off, it has gone to the Public Service Pay Commission and let us wait for the report.

On a parallel basis, it is interesting that during that period the Chief of Staff was making a public plea at the various representative association's meetings and publicly talking about the pay issue. We know now why that was the case because he probably knew at that time that the process was with the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform but the Minister of State wanted to take it off his desk by saying that it had gone to the Public Service Pay Commission and by not informing us where it had really gone, namely the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform. My difficulty is that the Minister of State has delayed the issue around the recruitment and retention crisis by having the report delayed for a quarter of the year with the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform. It also undermines the integrity of the process whereby the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform has chipped away at and diluted some of the issues and genuine difficulties that members of the Defence Forces have. That is the issue. It is not about having a perfect story or not. The Minister of State did not tell the House the truth in October 2018 and he did not correct the record until January when he knew damn well where that report was going. Why did the Minister of State not tell us where it was going at that stage?

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