Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I do not know for sure. I think I recollect that an issue arose because others who were redeployed into contact tracing from other parts of the public service were not getting an additional allowance. As is so often the case when it comes to public sector pay issues, while a case may be justified on the face of things it triggers a set of knock-on claims which then make it unaffordable. That might be the reason but I might be wrong so I will ask the Minister for Defence, Deputy Coveney, to come back to the Deputy directly on that issue. I wish to record my appreciation, and that of the House, for the role the Defence Forces have played in helping us fight this pandemic, whether in contact tracing or, now, as the liaison officers for mandatory hotel quarantine.

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