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

On the image of Deputy Durkan being in the Defence Forces, while the retirement age issues are something we have been considering and, as Deputy Brady and others will be aware, we managed to get agreement with the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform in terms of the post-1997 contracts issue for the vast majority of people who have been impacted by that, and I hope to be able to conclude those discussions to ensure everybody is accommodated in that regard, we will continue to have that discussion. That is a discussion that is happening outside of the Defence Forces as well. We must remind ourselves as well that serving in the Defence Forces is different from other modes of employment. If you are stationed in Mali, UNIFIL in southern Lebanon, on the Golan Heights or in any other part of the world on a peacekeeping mission, physical fitness is linked to age as well. We need to be cautious here, but, of course, we also work with the representative bodies in the Defence Forces to ensure the appropriate retirement age is being applied.

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