Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Where will the strategic threat analysis centre be located? Will it be a part of the Department of the Taoiseach, the Department of Defence or the Department of Justice and Equality? Will the Taoiseach explain the reasons it will be located in a specific Department?

One of the strategic threats I am most aware of, as a member of a family with many members who served in our Defence Forces, including my father, is that people are walking out of the Army at the moment. They are buying themselves out where they can afford to. The same is true of the Air Corps, which I know the Taoiseach is very familiar with, given that it was once in our joint constituency but is now in Dublin Mid-West. The personnel shortage crisis developing in the Army requires an urgent response. It is also the case that a three-star private in the Army cannot, on his or her current salary scale, afford to buy an affordable home. Most of those privates do not qualify for social housing, although a number of members of the Defence Forces qualify for a working family payment if they have a number of children. Does the Government have any proposals to ensure that serving members of the Defence Forces who do one or two contracts or perhaps serve three or four times overseas can be housed? They should have access to affordable housing. Those who are not ready to buy a house should have access to an affordable social rent. At the moment these things are not possible. Every week people who have retired from the ranks stand before the gates of Leinster House and seek to explain the situation to us in detail. It is the most fundamental threat our Defence Forces have faced in a long time.

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