Brendan Ryan (Dublin Fingal, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I refer to the Labour Party's amendment to the motion. The party supports the motion and I hope Deputy Chambers will recognise our amendment as a genuine attempt to strengthen it. Our amendment aims to bring what is recognised at the start of the original motion and turn them into actions, particularly in the area of mental health. The original motion recognises the results of recent surveys of members who are experiencing mental health difficulties, increased stress and low morale.

It is 13 months since the in-house physician in the Defence Forces retired and a replacement has not been appointed. Our amendment calls for the establishment of a dedicated body within the Permanent Defence Force to monitor and mediate the long-term care needs - physical, mental and material - of current and former members, in particular those who have returned from service abroad. We seek a commitment by the Government to fast-track the recruitment of psychiatrists to safeguard the mental health of current and former members of the Defence Forces. We also seek an urgent review of conditions for female personnel within the Defence Forces to explain past recruitment failures and a recommitment to increasing gender balance in the Defence Forces.

This Government is now into its fourth year and it is a shocking indictment of it that no progress has been made on improving and investing in our Defence Forces. A constituent wrote to me this week who said that the ever-increasing crisis in our Defence Forces has worsened in the past year. No one can disagree with that view.

The practical measures we have been calling for during this time regarding the implementation of the working time directive, affiliation with the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, increases in pay, vital allowances and proper investment in barracks, equipment, facilities and amenities have all fallen on deaf ears.

The Government is uncaring about the plight of our Defence Forces personnel. I do not refer to the Minister of State personally but I believe the Defence Forces are held in low regard by the Cabinet generally. As Labour Party Members have stated numerous times in the House, many serving members are on shockingly low wages. Last year, it emerged that 1,760 Defence Forces members are on the working family payment but I acknowledge the Minister's challenge regarding that figure and will re-check it. Even if his figures are correct, and I suspect they are, given that he checked them, it is far too many. Nobody in our Defence Forces should be on the working family payment.

A greater gender balance is needed within our Defence Forces. Currently, there are just 596 women among a total of 8,847 personnel.

Shockingly, just 33 women have joined and remained in the Defence Forces in the past four years. This is unacceptable and it highlights the general problems with regard to retention within the force. Both men and women are leaving for better-paid positions in the private sector, with better conditions. Members of the Defence Forces are the lowest-paid workers in the public service and this must change. The conditions of work are unacceptable also.

Members of the Defence Forces have been on call for 72 hours at a time, which is a practice outside the scope of the working time directive. Other defence forces in Europe, such as those in Sweden and Germany, have adapted their practices to meet the requirements of the working time directive. As an example, the hours worked by officers are assessed over a three-month period and if they have exceeded the weekly 48-hour limit, they get compensatory time off at the end of the three months. It is not unreasonable to expect our own Defence Forces to be treated the same. The unorthodox nature of Defence Forces work does not make it incompatible to adhere to the working time directive. There is no excuse in hiding behind the nature of the work. It is dishonest.

Real political will is required to support our Defence Forces and implement the working time directive. The Labour Party fully supports the need for a proper and robust retention policy for the Defence Forces. The Government has ploughed money into recruitment drives but they are worth very little if we are losing members prematurely at the other end. Members of RACO told the Joint Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence two weeks ago that more than 3,200 members have left the forces from 2014 to 2018. Some 82% of these are being classed as early voluntary retirements. These are members who are choosing to leave. In real terms, we had a net loss of 120 members from our Defence Forces in 2018 when the figures are matched against new recruits. Our Permanent Defence Force can no longer remain a bucket with a hole in it but with 87% of the Defence Forces earning below the average public sector wage, there is no sign that this exodus will halt any time soon. As the general secretary of RACO, Commandant Conor King noted, “The Defence Forces is currently surviving on the goodwill [and loyalty] of its personnel, that willingness to go over and above the call of duty to achieve the mission or complete the task”. This is admirable but it is grossly unfair and is unsustainable.

The Government is not meeting its own promise to keep Defence Forces personnel above 9,500 and recent figures indicate that numbers are less than 8,500. With more members leaving than are being recruited, the Government will be moving further away from its own promised target rather than closing the gap.

Our hope is that this motion will be passed as amended by ourselves and others. We know the unfortunate history of Opposition motions which are passed in this Dáil. They disappear into a black hole, never again to see the light of day. That cannot happen with this motion; the Minister of State cannot let it happen. He cannot leave our Defence Forces to wither and die on the vine through the Government’s inaction. That, however, is exactly what is happening.

What will be the legacy of this Government on defence? It will be a force that is diminished, demoralised and disrespected. It will be a force that has been ground to its knees with so many of its members in receipt of the working family payment. I respect the Minister of State challenging the figure of 1,700 who are in receipt of that payment but no amount of spin can deny these facts.

The motion is a call to action across all levels of the Defence Forces. Through the lack of any meaningful action, we have members struggling with their mental health and high levels of stress. We need to get the basics right. Fix the pay and conditions and put in place, as a matter of urgency, proper supports for the mental, physical and emotional health of our Defence Force members.

In the opening section of his amendment, the Minister of State recognises everything we all recognise in our Defence Forces, that is, the efforts they put in, their commitment to the cause and so on. Everyone in this House agrees on that but what happens after that? Members of the Defence Forces hear the Minister of State and Members saying that but then realise the circumstances they are in and the major gap between the rhetoric of what Members and the Government say in here about how the Defence Forces are respected as a body and the way in which they are treated. That gap must be filled. If I were a Minister coming into the House, I would acknowledge the points in these motions and the amendments and I would address how we will try to deal with them one by one. I would not acknowledge and note all the things that I could dig up to note in an alternative motion – the Minister of State should address the things that are wrong. He would get greater respect from the people in here and from the Defence Forces themselves if he acknowledged all the things that are wrong and if he said he would get them right and if he gave a timeline for how they would be worked on, one by one.

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