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

We are now, I hope, at the closing stages of finalising how we will implement the working time directive within the Defence Forces and the amending changes we have to make to the Act to reflect that. A subcommittee of the defence conciliation and arbitration council, comprised of the representative associations and military and civil management, was established to discuss matters relating to the implementation of the working time directive, where appropriate. It is having meetings now to try to conclude how we get this balance right between, on one hand, applying the working time directive, where appropriate, while, at the same time, ensuring the Defence Forces can operate efficiently as military whether it is at the Golan Heights or on the deck of a naval ship patrolling the west coast. I hope we can agree a consensus on what exceptions or derogations need to be made to the working time directive for military service, in certain circumstances, and also apply the directive to all other areas where derogations are not justified. What I want and hope to get from the subcommittee, that is, senior management in the Defence Forces, my own Department and representative bodies, is a series of recommendations on which I can sign off in the not too distant future in order that we can get on with amending the legislation and ensuring the working time directive applies, as appropriate, to the Defence Forces.

Part of that, as the Deputy knows, will be the ability to measure working time within the Defence Forces and I recognise that we have to have a credible system to do that. We will put a credible system in place and I am happy to work with the representative bodies to make sure they are happy with that as well.

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