Results 9,761-9,780 of 17,012 for speaker:Paul Kehoe
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Foreign Affairs Council: Defence and Related Matters (26 Apr 2018)
Paul Kehoe: Sorry, will the Deputy repeat the question?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Foreign Affairs Council: Defence and Related Matters (26 Apr 2018)
Paul Kehoe: I am running out of paper.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Foreign Affairs Council: Defence and Related Matters (26 Apr 2018)
Paul Kehoe: I will address Senator McFadden's queries first as she has to leave.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Foreign Affairs Council: Defence and Related Matters (26 Apr 2018)
Paul Kehoe: The Senator referred to Operation Sophia. The Naval Service deployed on Operation Sophia last Sunday week. A total of 54 personnel is participating in that operation. Since Ireland entered into Operation Sophia the Naval Service has been gathering information on oil smuggling, has focused patrols on countering illegal arms trafficking, has operations around intercepting smugglers and is...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Foreign Affairs Council: Defence and Related Matters (26 Apr 2018)
Paul Kehoe: There is a process going on. I wrote to the Minister, Deputy Paschal Donohoe and to the Public Service Pay Commission in April of last year. Out of that and the report of May 2017, in October 2017, the Minister, Deputy Donohoe, updated the Cabinet and identified the health sector and the Defence Forces as the two priority areas to be dealt with under the Public Service Pay Commission. That...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Foreign Affairs Council: Defence and Related Matters (26 Apr 2018)
Paul Kehoe: I want to give the Deputy the background as well.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Foreign Affairs Council: Defence and Related Matters (26 Apr 2018)
Paul Kehoe: The Deputy had a great go at me so I think it is only right-----
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Foreign Affairs Council: Defence and Related Matters (26 Apr 2018)
Paul Kehoe: That is okay, Chairman. There was a political charge made to me so I think I have the right-----
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Foreign Affairs Council: Defence and Related Matters (26 Apr 2018)
Paul Kehoe: The Deputy said I was refusing to address the elephant in the room. It is only right that I do so.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Foreign Affairs Council: Defence and Related Matters (26 Apr 2018)
Paul Kehoe: I absolutely recognise that there are huge numbers leaving the Defence Forces. I am not going to dispute that. We have been competing through a very buoyant economy over the past two or three years. This has always been the case. When the economy was buoyant back in the early 2000s, there were people leaving the Defence Forces and going into the private sector. I outlined to the Deputy...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Foreign Affairs Council: Defence and Related Matters (26 Apr 2018)
Paul Kehoe: Whatever is in the UL study is being addressed. A military team has been set aside and projects have been set up to address all the issues in the UL study. Regarding the duty allowance, a PDFORRA claim has been submitted through the conciliation and arbitration process. We are going through a review of conciliation and arbitration at present. I have spoken to the Minister, Deputy...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Foreign Affairs Council: Defence and Related Matters (26 Apr 2018)
Paul Kehoe: I will get the Deputy a full update on it and have it addressed directly to him. Regarding the gap analysis, I said earlier that there is a project that was in the 2015 White Paper. I have brought forward that project and a military and civil team will be working on it shortly. Now that we are dealing with the Public Service Pay Commission, the team has identified a number of the gaps in...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Foreign Affairs Council: Defence and Related Matters (26 Apr 2018)
Paul Kehoe: Absolutely. Our policy direction for the next ten years is in the White Paper on Defence 2015, and that is what we base all our decisions on. If this is to be changed, that is not a matter for me; it will be a matter for the Dáil and the people of Ireland. I think that covers-----
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Foreign Affairs Council: Defence and Related Matters (26 Apr 2018)
Paul Kehoe: On the detention centres?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Foreign Affairs Council: Defence and Related Matters (26 Apr 2018)
Paul Kehoe: On the question on Operation Sophia, Deputy Ó Snodaigh will know that picking up and rescuing migrants is one thing in which members of the Naval Service are involved, but they are also involved in gathering information on oil smuggling, patrols for illegal arms trafficking and monitoring the effectiveness of the Libyan coastguard and navy. I am due to travel out to the headquarters of...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Foreign Affairs Council: Defence and Related Matters (26 Apr 2018)
Paul Kehoe: Any migrants the Irish Naval Service picked up were brought to the Italian coast, a safe haven, and we do not return any of them to the Libyan coastguard or to the Libyan navy. We might transfer some migrants to other naval vessels involved in Operation Sophia and they then transport them. If another country picks up 500 migrants and we pick up 100, instead of two ships travelling it makes...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Foreign Affairs Council: Defence and Related Matters (26 Apr 2018)
Paul Kehoe: Yes, I know.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Foreign Affairs Council: Defence and Related Matters (26 Apr 2018)
Paul Kehoe: That is okay.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Foreign Affairs Council: Defence and Related Matters (26 Apr 2018)
Paul Kehoe: I accept the comments made by the Deputy. I know that the Chairman and all of the members of this committee greatly appreciate the work that has been done by Major General Beary. A question was asked about how many members of the Irish Defence Forces served in Afghanistan. I understand that there were seven members and only one of them came from the Army Ranger Wing. That is a situation...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Foreign Affairs Council: Defence and Related Matters (26 Apr 2018)
Paul Kehoe: No. I hope the Deputy will understand that the submission contains sensitive material such as evidence-based data. For security reasons, I do not want to hand over some of the submissions. Deputy Grealish mentioned the conciliation and arbitration scheme and I can confirm that there is a backlog. In 2016, when I was appointed to this office, one of the first areas that I was briefed on...