Patrick Costello (Dublin South Central, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

Like many Deputies, I welcome the publication of this report. Our Defence Forces do an excellent job and need to be supported in that and recognised for the work they do for us. I spoke before in the House about the Defence Forces and said quite frequently we see them reported on in the media in negative terms, such as in the context of the crisis of recruitment, the poor pay and conditions, the poverty of Army families and the challenges we face. What we really have is a vast body of men and women whose role, job and vocation is to support the State and stand in the way of whatever dangers we may ask them to. It is positive the report of the commission talks a lot about the impact of climate change because as that bites and the floods, storms and adverse weather conditions get worse, it is only the Defence Forces we can rely on in that role of aid to the civil power. That means standing in the breach, providing the bridges we will need, the airlifts and the support to cut-off communities.

They have done that in excellent ways in the past. We have a proud tradition in this country of involvement in the United Nations and peacekeeping work. Many young men and women want to be part of that tradition. They do not see the Army, however, as an appealing place to work because of all these problems. The vocation for international duties and peacekeeping work has been tarnished by cosying up to things such as PESCO and various other multilateral arrangements.

We are at a turning point when it comes to our Defence Forces. The commission was an excellent exercise. It has done its work and we in this Chamber and Ministers at the Cabinet table have a lot of hard work to do. There are many things to welcome in this report, such as commitments to increase recruitment and to reorganise structures. There is talk of the creation of a new rank of lance corporal, which is very positive in acknowledging progression, in addition to providing leadership opportunities and career development opportunities. There is a recommendation around affiliation with ICTU, which is a very important thing for PDFORRA and on-the-ground members of the Defence Forces. These are essential things we need to do, if we are to hit these new targets and increase recruitment. Equally, we need to address the many things driving people to leave the Defence Forces. Pay and conditions were not considered as part of the terms of reference. The report is silent on those matters, but we need to address them if we are to have any hope of recruiting the extra personnel the commission talks about us needing.

The members of the Women of Honour group mentioned by other Deputies need all the supports they are looking for in order that we can ensure the Defence Forces, as everywhere else, is a safe place to work and will be an appealing place for women to work. There is a vocation to serving in the Defence Forces that is not just for men. If they are provided with a safe place, women will happily sign up to that vocation of international service and aid to civilian power.

We talk about purchasing new ships for the Naval Service but we struggle to crew the ships we have at present. I do not understand how we will expand our Naval Service. We can talk about whether we should or why, and all the reasons that are in the report, but we struggle at present to crew the naval vessels we have. I do not understand how we will address this.

I have talked about pay and safety for members in the Defence Forces but there are wider conditions. Are we providing proper housing on barracks? Are we providing reasonable standards of accommodation for members of the Defence Forces? Are we providing reasonable opportunities for growth, development and leadership? There are many choices members of the Defence Forces have to make if they choose to take on overseas service, which is part of our proud tradition of peacekeeping. They are deeply aware that while they are serving overseas their role is not being backfilled in their barracks at home. That is causing stress for the other men and women in their unit, who now have to do two, three or four jobs because their colleagues have the honour of going off to serve with the UN. That kind of stress makes people question their role in the services.

If we do not address the fundamental pay, conditions and quality of life issues for the average soldier, we will not achieve the higher ambitions we have set ourselves. We need to achieve those higher ambitions. As I said at the start, the aid to civilian power piece is a very important role the Defence Forces play. We have seen it with the Covid pandemic, during which we called on the Defence Forces when we needed to ramp up our testing facilities very quickly. When we needed to provide mandatory quarantine for people arriving at airports, we called on the Defence Forces. When there is an emergency we call on it, and its members willingly step into the breach because that is the vocation they have chosen. We will not get other people to choose that vocation and we will not get people to do what we need to do to keep the rest of us safe unless we address those fundamental issues of pay and conditions.

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