Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)

I was not talking about fighter jets but was asked about a question about them at an Army barracks. I said I want to get to level of ambition, LAO, 3, which talks about that degree of air cover. We need a better understanding of what happens and the capabilities in our skies and seas. The Deputy is right that the key to being able to activate any of this is having the personnel to operate any such infrastructural capabilities, and we can debate the merits or demerits of each of those.

I am not saying this is what he is saying, but it is not fair to completely decouple pay from considerations of retention. If pay is very low, personnel are not going to be retained in an organisation. The changes in pay are helpful. The extension of private secondary healthcare, restructuring of the patrol duty allowance and the extensive training and education opportunities that now exist in the Defence Forces, which are possibly unrivalled in many parts of the public service, are also helpful. Increasing the mandatory retirement age to 62 is a retention measure and increasing the maximum recruitment age to 39 also brings people in.

The Deputy asked if I will consider the introduction of service commitment schemes to retain key specialist functions. My answer is that we already have one and I keep under review whether we need to do more in respect of particular specialties that we want to retain in the Defence Forces.

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