Jack Chambers (Dublin West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I have been speaking to representative associations. Of course they accepted the miserly increase the Minister of State gave them. However, we also have to look at the research from the pay commission which said that three in five will leave the PDF in the next two years. If the Minister of State and his team are not meeting the outcomes around retention initiatives that are listed in the specific timelines referenced in the pay commission process, the delays will result in bigger retention difficulties for our Naval Service, Army and Air Corps. The concern is that their answers are not being received for PDFORRA and RACO from the Minister of State's side of the House when it comes to the outcomes of these recommendations. The Minister of State can say that the reviews are ongoing and things are broadly on track but that is just nebulous nonsense. People are still leaving. The rate of attrition and the exodus are still ongoing and we have collapsing structures that have not changed since the outcome of the pay commission report. If the Minister of State wants a bit of praise about it, fine, but the outcome is that we are heading towards 8,000, which is far away from the target of 9,500. The failure and legacy of the Minister of State will be around how he has allowed the Defence Forces to collapse on his watch and also how he did not provide a pressing brief on his Department so that he matched the outcomes that are referenced in the pay commission structures.

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