Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I accept there is a recruitment and retention issue in the Defence Forces. We are doing a lot to address this. We have had some successes, especially in the Air Corps in bringing pilots back in. That was not just a Covid dividend; it was also because of a scheme we put in place to do that. We are setting about addressing recruitment and retention issues in the Naval Service and in the Army too. We are inviting back and bringing back people who have left the Defence Forces who want to return, at officer level and non-officer level. There is a lot happening. The Defence Forces representative organisations know that because we have spoken to them about it. This is not going to happen overnight. We need to be realistic that recruitment does take some time.

The ask of RACO with regard to pay was to set up a separate pay body, which is exactly what we are doing. Every Member in the House should know that the way in which public sector pay negotiations happen is a collective negotiation for everybody. There has not been the capacity to single out one organisation and look at it separately for pay, which is what everybody seems to suggest every time we talk about this issue in the House. Let us be realistic and let us be ambitious at the same time, to look at structures that can address the retention issues in the Defence Forces, which I believe is what we are trying to do.

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