Catherine Callaghan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael)

I thank the Tánaiste. I acknowledge his work to date on improving pay and conditions, some of which he has outlined such as quite rightly increasing pay for three-star privates and reforming the apprenticeship pathway so that technical staff beginning their careers in the Defence Forces correspond with three-star privates after six months. The Tánaiste has also overseen the introduction of the instructor's allowance and established a service commitment scheme for our air traffic controllers in the Air Corps. These are all developments that should quite rightly be applauded.

However, at present, everyone else in the Defence Forces is on approximately €43,000 after six months but cadets remain on the €25,000. I understand the points the Tánaiste outlined but in this post-2013 era of career average earnings and pensions, these cadets are getting penalised on the double in their current pay and future pensions. As we all know, cadets can now join up to the age of 39 so it is conceivable that they have families and mortgages. A business case was prepared by the Defence Forces on foot of a motion asking for this to be looked at. Can the Tánaiste please confirm if this case has been progressed?

See this speech in context