Bobby Aylward (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Anyone listening to the Minster of State would think everything was hunky-dory in the Defence Forces and that it is an attractive job for people leaving college. The reality, however, is different. We all know there is a dearth of recruits; it is impossible to get them. Ships are tied up, as has been stated. The Minister of State well knows that what he has set out is spiel and untrue. Since the recession, almost ten years ago, the Government has fallen behind in looking after the Defence Forces. The Taoiseach and the Minister of State are responsible. It is time to wake up now and smell the reality. The Government is hiding behind the pay commission report. People in the Defence Forces are being left behind. They have not got fair play and they do not have a union to represent them.

I come from Kilkenny where there is a military barracks. Some of the personnel there are receiving the family income supplement, FIS. Why is that the case if the two minutes of rhetoric the Minster of State just read out is true? I ask him to be honest and own up to what is happening. The members of the Defence Forces are not being properly paid and new recruits are not being attracted. Some 57% of members of the Permanent Defence Force have stated they will leave in the next two years. For more than 80% of those personnel, pay is the primary consideration in reaching the decision to leave.

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