Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

We are great at lauding the Defence Forces of this country, and we rightly laud them. The Minister referred to some special allowances but they are allowances and not basic pay. Most of the other increases he announced will be given to the public service in general. That does not address the fundamental issue.

The Minister correctly pointed out earlier that the Defence Forces are unique. They are not compatible with the public service in general. For example, members of the Defence Forces cannot strike, as the Minister pointed out, but they do not get overtime either. They are, therefore, in a totally different category. By saying they are included in the public service agreements seems to indicate that we will talk about it but we will not recognise that there is a special underlying issue that needs to be addressed here.

The Minister talked about setting up a special group to look at the pay of the Defence Forces. Can he give an indication of when that will be set up, when it will likely submit a final report and when decisions will be made on it?

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