Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome this amendment and we will see how those pay discussions work out. In this Finance Bill, we are dealing with something available to many other public servants and, indeed, private sector employees. It is appropriate that this tax credit be made available to personnel in the Naval Service. It does raise a wider issue in that these personnel need to be seen as workers and their representative organisations need to be able to apply for membership of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, ICTU. The working time directive also needs to cover the personnel of the Defence Forces when they are not on active service, and overtime rates should be paid.

Other issues also need to be dealt with in this discussion. With the indulgence of the Ceann Comhairle, I will point out that there has been some confusion between his office and mine, which resulted in amendments I was submitting on Report Stage falling outside of the necessary time. That was unfortunate, but we have dealt with many of them on Committee Stage anyway. I just wanted to put that explanation on the record.

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