Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The Taoiseach did not answer the question of why the Minister of State, Deputy Kehoe, contradicted Commodore Malone and undermined him to those under his command and questioned what he had said, and did so trenchantly with the media and denied that ships were docked because of crew shortages, which they were. That is the only reason. I do not know from whom the Taoiseach is getting his information. The rest of the Members of the House know from talking to people, to families of those who work in the Army, Navy and Air Corps and from retired personnel, how angry they are at the running down of our Defence Forces. That is the recurring refrain from those who love and value our Defence Forces, those who have served and the military families whose fathers, and fathers before them, operated in the Army. Go to those communities, Taoiseach. They have never witnessed what they perceive to be the neglect of a Government towards them.

The Taoiseach can say all he has just said but it does not equate with their experience and how they see it. Morale has never been so low in our Defence Forces. Numbers have never been so low. That is a fact. The Army, Naval Service and Air Corps have never been so under strength. More alarmingly, specialists in all three arms are dangerously low, from Army bomb disposal, to cybersecurity, to communications specialists and across the board. The intervention of the pay commission is very belated with regard to the Minister of State, Deputy Kehoe. I note the Taoiseach has said he has absolute and total confidence in the Minister of State, Deputy Kehoe. I suspect that not too many out there in the military community, be they serving members or retired members, who value it so much, would share his sentiments in this regard.

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