Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Why then did the Minister of State, Deputy Kehoe, contradict Commodore Michael Malone? There have been expressions from very senior levels within the Defence Forces describing the relationship between them and the Department of Defence as toxic, broken and dysfunctional. That is not a sustainable situation. The Minister of State then came out and openly contradicted the commodore and attempted to place inaccurate and misleading information on the record. Does the Taoiseach not agree that the Minister of State should clarify or withdraw those remarks?

It was reported in March this year that the rate of turnover in the Defence Forces was 8.1%. That figure now stands at 9%. For the purposes of comparison, the Ministry of Defence in Britain declared a retention crisis at a turnover rate of just 5%. We are clearly dealing with a real problem of scale while the Taoiseach sits on his hands. His pay increase proposals for very low-paid workers in the Defence Forces will simply not cut it. I suggest that he is making a bad situation a whole lot worse.

Will the Taoiseach ask his Minister of State to withdraw his contradictions and inaccurate claims from the public domain?

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