Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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I have some sympathy for that but I also need to put on the record what has happened here so it is clear from the Government's perspective. The Deputy may be aware that, with the agreement of RACO, the specialised instructors allowance for officers was bought out under the defence sector collective agreement of the public service agreement 2013-2016, which was the Haddington Road agreement. There was a negotiated buy-out, essentially, of that specialist instructors allowance under a pay round discussion and negotiation. While the May 2019 report of the Public Service Pay Commission on recruitment and retention in the Permanent Defence Force made a recommendation regarding Defence Forces allowances, it did not make any recommendation on the re-establishment of any allowances which were abolished under the Haddington Road agreement. Rather, the commission recommended that Defence Forces allowances, which were retained under the Haddington Road agreement but reduced above and beyond any reductions made under FEMPI, would have their reductions restored. Given that the specialised instructors allowance for officers was abolished rather than reduced, it was not encompassed by any recommendation of the commission. I point out that is not the Defence Forces commission but the previous commission.

In 2017, RACO submitted a claim to the conciliation and arbitration council of the conciliation and arbitration scheme seeking reinstatement of the specialist instructors allowance for officers. As the claim was a cost-increasing measure, under the terms of the pay agreement of the day, the Public Services Stability Agreement 2018-2020, the claim could not be considered. RACO has since reinstated this claim and the matter is being processed through the conciliation and arbitration scheme for members of the Permanent Defence Force. As discussions on the scheme are confidential to the parties concerned, I am constrained in what I can say. There was scope in the context of the current pay agreement, Building Momentum: A New Public Service Pay Agreement 2021-2022, to which RACO signed up, to have the matter of the restoration of the specialist instructors allowance considered under the sectoral bargaining element of that fund. RACO members chose a general pay increase instead.

I will come back with a more positive response because I do have some sympathy for this and I want to outline why I do.

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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I have had long discussions with RACO on this issue. It has repeatedly raised it with me and that is fair enough. It has a slightly different version of what happened to specialist instructors' allowances.

However, there is a broader question here that we must address. If we are going to be successful in recruiting the numbers we need to recruit and in maintaining standards in the Defence Forces, there will be a great deal of pressure on training within the Defence Forces in the context of upskilling and accommodating the numbers we have to bring into the Defence Forces over a relatively short period of time. The record over the last ten years or so in terms of recruitment and retention shows that we have an enormous challenge to add a net 3,000 to the Defence Forces over a number of years. That is going to put a lot of pressure on instructors in the Defence Forces. In that context, I believe we should look at this issue again to see how we can accommodate the concerns that have been raised by RACO.

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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This is one of many issues on which we will have to work with the representative bodies. The scale of the reform, change, growth, expansion and investment that will have to be delivered in partnership between the Department of Defence and the Defence Forces will involve a great deal of disruption and change, all of it for the better. This is not about change that is downsizing for cost savings. It is the opposite. It is about upsizing in terms of capacity, people and resources. It is also about modernisation, change of culture and change of structure to make the Defence Forces more family-friendly, attractive and flexible for more people to join. However, all of that requires strong co-operation between me and my office, the Chief of Staff and his team and the representative bodies. It is hoped that we will be able to find a way forward on this issue in that context.