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

In fairness, I am surprised that the Deputy is perplexed that these issues have not been resolved because this is a commitment in the programme for Government to address this issue but this is through the lifetime of the Government. I hope to make a great deal of progress in the next 12 months but this is not an easy thing to address and there is quite a cost to it. I believe it will cost us, approximately €10 million a year. This is, incidentally, money well spent in addressing this issue and fully responding to the commitments which have been made in the programme for Government.

As the Deputy may be aware, the programme for Government contains a commitment to “ensure that all enlisted members of the Defence Forces have the same access to health care as officers currently do”. This commitment was endorsed by the Commission on the Future of the Defence Forces and is also one of its recommendations and we will deliver it.

Currently, a wide range of medical services is provided to members of the Permanent Defence Force at State expense.

These include an annual medical examination, sick parades, attendance at GP surgery outside of sick parade and out-of-hours GP services, prescription services, laboratory services, physiotherapy, chiropody, radiology, mental health services provided by a psychiatrist and two psychologists, inpatient and outpatient public hospital charges and routine dental treatment. In addition, commissioned officers and members of the Army nursing service can avail of private consultant appointments and diagnostic tests as well as private or semi-private hospital treatment, depending on rank.

In the case of Defence Forces personnel assigned to longer term overseas administrative posts such as the European Union Military Staff and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, these personnel and any accompanying dependents are provided with global comprehensive medical insurance for which a formal arrangement is in place with a health insurance provider. This involves the organisation paying the difference between a basic minimum payment and the cost of a global plan. The provision of this range of benefits is unique in the public and private sectors and these benefits are exempt from benefit-in-kind taxation.

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