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

That is why we have a sub-committee in place. We have asked the senior management - the Chief of Staff and his team - to make recommendations on what they see as necessary in terms of exemptions and derogations from the working time directive to allow the military to function in certain circumstances. We have an ongoing process of consulting the representatives associations, which I suspect will have different perspectives on where those derogations should and should not be applied. We do not have agreement on that yet, which is why we have a process in place to try to find agreement. I have spoken to PDFORRA and the Representative Association of Commissioned Officers, RACO, about this and they understand the structure within which we are trying to work. Ultimately, I will have to make a final decision. I hope we will be able to reach a consensus between management, the Department and the representative bodies on how the working time directive will apply. If we cannot get agreement, I will have to make decisions and we will move ahead on the basis of those decisions. There is a process under way that needs to conclude first. I will get recommendations on the back of that and we will take the matter from there.

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