John Brady (Wicklow, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I want to welcome the increase in the ODA allocation in the budget. It is important that we recognise when something is done right.

While the Minister predicted a dramatic increase in the number of passports issued last year, it is important that he address the crisis relating to the passport service and builds capacity within the Passport Office in order to allow it to be able to deal with the expected demand next year. It is to be hoped that as part of that we will see the opening of a passport office in Belfast.

I have met, talked with and listened in detail to members of the Defence Forces from all ranks, as I know the Minister has done. I can tell him that they were watching and listening yesterday, perhaps more in hope than expectation. They were listening for recognition from the Government that their service is something which is valued, yet they emerged from the budget very much as they entered it or, indeed, worse off, particularly if we measure results in terms of the repeated damage inflicted on the morale of the Defence Forces.

The Minister has persisted in the exclusion of 40% of the Naval Service from the seagoing commitment scheme and the discrimination against many younger members, who are the worst paid of the worst paid of the State's public servants. Even the qualifying members of the Naval Service still have to be paid under the scheme. This matter needs to be addressed immediately. The Minister has also failed to take the opportunity offered to establish parity of esteem for members of the Defence Forces with other better paid branches of State services. The patrol duty allowance for members of the Defence Forces remains a taxable allowance despite personnel often serving alongside members of other services who enjoy a tax-free allowance. I believe that is their due and something they merit.

There was a squandered opportunity in the budget to provide a small but tangible benefit of approximately €30 to a service in crisis by making the payment non-taxable. The insistence of the Government on the maintenance of a two-tier system of allowances is being allowed to continue. The only reason that has been allowed to occur is because of the continued exclusion of Defence Forces' representative bodies from public pay talks where the interests of the Defence Forces could and should be represented on an equal footing with all other branches of the public sector.

The Minister has persisted in his refusal to allow PDFORRA to affiliate with the ICTU, and that needs to be addressed. That is happening despite the findings and recommendations of the European Committee of Social Rights and the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe that it was its right to do so. The Minister has also failed to address the failure to implement the working time directive. The defence community has declared that there is a crisis within the forces and they are quickly approaching the point of no return. Ships cannot go to sea and patrols cannot take place. An estimated 1,400 members may well leave the Defence Forces in the year ahead, yet the Minister continues to refuse to address the issue of post-1994 contracts which affect up to 700 members of the Defence Forces. The time to act is now. He should not wait for a commission to report. There are things can and must be done immediately to stop the decline within the Defence Forces.

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