David Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for his response and encourage him to continue with the work of advancing the suggestions and proposals he put forward. Can he give us any idea as to when the Commission on Defence Forces recommendation that the naval seagoing tax credit and the Naval Service seagoing commitment scheme be replaced with a less complex seagoing duty measure? Could he also give any idea what is happening with the working time directive implementation? Can he provide an indicative timescale as to when that might happen? Has he had a look at the RACO and Amárach Research, which indicates that the single pension scheme was a trigger for almost half of those leaving the Defence Forces to leave, due to the reduction in pension and consequent reduction in quality of life afterwards? Could he tell me anything about the specialised instructors' allowance, in particular in the Naval Service? Would he agree that if it was active it would help to retain personnel in the Naval Service?

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