Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the amendment. In his remarks the Minister said it is a temporary measure. Will he elaborate further on the reason it is intended that this will only apply for one year? If it applies for the year of assessment, that is, 2020, and given that one of the conditions is that a member of the Naval Service has spent at least 80 days at sea, I assume the credit will be claimed in 2021 in respect of 2020 where a person has spent 80 days at sea in 2020. Given that, as the Minister has acknowledged, this is an extension of the existing fisher tax credit, as it is technically called, to members of the Naval Service, why is it temporary when the conditions are the same?

I hope the Minister realises the scale of the recruitment and retention crisis across our Defence Forces, including in the Naval Service. I received information on this by way of a reply to a parliamentary question. In 2018, the number of people in the Naval Service who had to buy their way out of discharge by rank included one corporal, 62 privates and 13 recruits, who collectively paid €72,000 to the Department to exit from the Naval Service. In addition, in 2018 there were 49 voluntary early retirements and 22 other discharges, including retirements on age grounds. When those figures are compared with previous years, it is very evident that the number of paid and voluntary discharges has increased significantly because of the retention crisis. Why can the measure not be a permanent part of the tax code?

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