Carol Nolan (Laois-Offaly, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Tá áthas orm labhairt ar an mBille seo. I record my congratulations to Tipperary woman, Roberta O'Brien, who has become the first woman in the history of the Naval Service to achieve the rank of commander. That certainly needs to be acknowledged here. As I understand it, Roberta joined the Permanent Defence Force in 1995 and was part of the first ever intake of female personnel in the Irish Naval Service along with her classmate, Orla Gallagher, who is now a lieutenant commander. It is great to see this development and I hope many more women will follow the trail she has blazed.

To come back to the Bill, as I understand it from the explanatory memorandum, the intention is to make several important provisions. These include permitting the delegation by the Minister for Defence of a limited degree of control and authority over Defence Forces contingents deployed as part of an international force to the force commander of that particular force. While the memorandum is careful to assert that the amendment will not alter the current command structure within the Irish Defence Forces but merely underpin current practice in respect of the day-to-day operational control, it is difficult to see that this is actually the case. This strikes me as serious legislation with respect to the delegation of ministerial powers. In trying to think of some similar situations, I was reminded of the provisions of the Ministers and Secretaries Act 1977, whereby the Government, by order made on the request of a Minister, can delegate to a Minister of State all the powers and duties of such Minister of the Government. It appears that something similar is happening with this legislation. The Minister is granting official power that, up to this point, was his or hers alone, to an international force commander. That does not strike me as being inconsequential. What I and many others would be concerned about, more broadly, is that the Bill, while it is somewhat technical in nature, also creates the impression that the autonomy and sovereignty of the Irish Defence Forces is slowly being eroded within an international context.

I understand entirely that operational efficiency is important. I understand it is a good thing for our Defence Forces to work in smooth partnership with our allies, but have they not always done that? Have they not always made themselves responsive to the operational commands of the various force commanders under whom they have served? For example, section 2 proposes that any delegation of operational control will provide that each member of the Defence Forces assigned to an international force led by a force commander will comply with every lawful order issued to him or her by a member of the international force in his or her military chain of command. Is there a record of the Irish Defence Forces not submitting or complying with legitimate orders? I am asking the Minister for greater clarity to be provided on the problem that this Bill seeks to address. If the Irish Defence Forces have been compliant, and there is no reason to think they have not, why is this Bill necessary? Why are we embedding authority over our forces to an international force commander and delegating ministerial powers to achieve that?

My view is that when it comes to international participation we have an honourable and distinguished history. How will this Bill improve on that? I ask these questions as a non-specialist in the area, like so many of us here, with the exception of an Teachta Berry. I can only speak to the immediate concerns that the Bill creates for me as someone who values the extraordinary work of our Defence Forces but who would be instinctively cautious about seeing them at ever-increasing levels of disposal for international force commanders.

It would be remiss of me to let this occasion go without raising the issue of pay and conditions for our Defence Forces. We know from statements made before the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence last year that 3,200 personnel left the Defence Forces between 2014 and 2018, which is an astonishing 34.7% of the average strength for those years. As it has been noted, people should not think that this is due to early mandatory retirement ages for the Defence Forces personnel. A staggering 82% of those were premature voluntary retirements.

Problems such as these highlight enormous gaps that exist between the rhetoric of previous Ministers in terms of what is being done to improve retention and morale and the actual reality of life in our Defence Forces.

I have repeatedly highlighted this issue as a major concern and would really love to see it addressed.

We know that departures from the Defence Forces rose sharply during the economic crisis, particularly from 2010 to 2012. The 2012 reorganisation of the Defence Forces permanently lowered their strength to the current level. Now that we have officially re-entered recession, it is highly likely that existing retention problems will be deepened. I accept, as the Oireachtas Parliamentary Budget Office has pointed out, that the strengthening of our Defence Forces high-level plan shows the Government is progressing the implementation of the Public Service Pay Commission's recommendations. The Oireachtas Parliamentary Budget Office notes that this plan includes reviews of technical pay arrangements, incentivised long-service arrangements, barriers to extended participation and current retention strategies. It appears to provide a framework for addressing the recommendations of the Public Service Pay Commission. All of this will depend on the level and quality of the monitoring of, and reporting on, the implementation of the plan. It is essential for the confidence and credibility of the plan that this happen. I hope the Minister can commit to progressing it here tonight.

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