Results 10,241-10,260 of 51,305 for speaker:Micheál Martin

Select Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Estimates for Public Services 2023
Vote 35 - Army Pensions (Revised)
Vote 36 - Defence (Revised) (14 Feb 2023)

Micheál Martin: What is the pause?

Select Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Estimates for Public Services 2023
Vote 35 - Army Pensions (Revised)
Vote 36 - Defence (Revised) (14 Feb 2023)

Micheál Martin: I will come back to the Deputy on that. Does it relate to post 1994? My officials are not aware of any pause. There was an extension to 2024.

Select Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Estimates for Public Services 2023
Vote 35 - Army Pensions (Revised)
Vote 36 - Defence (Revised) (14 Feb 2023)

Micheál Martin: I thank the Cathaoirleach for his kind comments and welcome. I welcome this opportunity to engage with the Select Committee on Foreign Affairs and Defence to consider the 2023 Revised Estimates for the defence Vote group. I have a short opening statement that sets out the overall position and updates members on some recent developments within the defence sector. The report of the...

Select Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Estimates for Public Services 2023
Vote 35 - Army Pensions (Revised)
Vote 36 - Defence (Revised) (14 Feb 2023)

Micheál Martin: The Army continues to review its security operations. One would like to think the Army knows a thing or two about security.

Select Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Estimates for Public Services 2023
Vote 35 - Army Pensions (Revised)
Vote 36 - Defence (Revised) (14 Feb 2023)

Micheál Martin: The campaign was launched in March of last year and 1,000 applications were received. Ninety additional new members were inducted in 2022, all of whom were inducted into the Army Reserve. The Defence Forces are responsible for ongoing recruitment to the RDF. I will meet the Chief of Staff and military management shortly in respect of this matter, and we will just have to move. They are...

Select Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Estimates for Public Services 2023
Vote 35 - Army Pensions (Revised)
Vote 36 - Defence (Revised) (14 Feb 2023)

Micheál Martin: No. That is a holding situation, which we obviously want to expand and confirm permanently. I want to do more. That is a matter for discussions between me and the Department of Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform.

Select Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Estimates for Public Services 2023
Vote 35 - Army Pensions (Revised)
Vote 36 - Defence (Revised) (14 Feb 2023)

Micheál Martin: There was an extension in service limits for privates and corporals who were recruited to the Permanent Defence Force after 1 January 1994 to remain in service until up to 50 years of age, subject to them meeting certain criteria, including medical fitness. That agreement was done. In October 2022, the Minister for Defence secured an interim arrangement from the then Minister for Public...

Select Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Estimates for Public Services 2023
Vote 35 - Army Pensions (Revised)
Vote 36 - Defence (Revised) (14 Feb 2023)

Micheál Martin: In December 2021, the then Minister for Defence secured agreement with the then Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform allowing for an extension in service limits for privates and corporals who were recruited to the Permanent Defence Force after 1 January 1994 to remain in service up to 50 years of age. Sergeants recruited after 1994 then got an extension up to 2024.

Select Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Estimates for Public Services 2023
Vote 35 - Army Pensions (Revised)
Vote 36 - Defence (Revised) (14 Feb 2023)

Micheál Martin: Not as of now.

Select Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Estimates for Public Services 2023
Vote 35 - Army Pensions (Revised)
Vote 36 - Defence (Revised) (14 Feb 2023)

Micheál Martin: I know.

Select Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Estimates for Public Services 2023
Vote 35 - Army Pensions (Revised)
Vote 36 - Defence (Revised) (14 Feb 2023)

Micheál Martin: I know. I have only been Minister for two months.

Select Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Estimates for Public Services 2023
Vote 35 - Army Pensions (Revised)
Vote 36 - Defence (Revised) (14 Feb 2023)

Micheál Martin: That is my view and I will be in negotiations with the Minister for Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform on this issue.

Select Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Estimates for Public Services 2023
Vote 35 - Army Pensions (Revised)
Vote 36 - Defence (Revised) (14 Feb 2023)

Micheál Martin: The Deputy was asking whether there was a pause. There is no pause. This is the reality of where we are. In other words, the historic position has been that there was mandatory retirement, people retired early. My own view is that demographically, the world has changed. I have to have due respect for my own negotiating processes with my colleagues in government. The point I am trying to...

Select Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Estimates for Public Services 2023
Vote 35 - Army Pensions (Revised)
Vote 36 - Defence (Revised) (14 Feb 2023)

Micheál Martin: I refer the Deputy to my earlier comments. On the recruitment side there are two issues. The more immediate one is retention. Retention is one of the key areas, as Deputy Berry has said, that could give us an immediate dividend of holding onto people and reducing the exit from the Defence Forces more generally. While we did recruit last year we lost nearly double the number of people we...

Select Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Estimates for Public Services 2023
Vote 35 - Army Pensions (Revised)
Vote 36 - Defence (Revised) (14 Feb 2023)

Micheál Martin: It is part of an ongoing process of engagement between the Minister for Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform and me. I cannot unilaterally make decisions, as the Deputy will appreciate

Select Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Estimates for Public Services 2023
Vote 35 - Army Pensions (Revised)
Vote 36 - Defence (Revised) (14 Feb 2023)

Micheál Martin: That is not the only issue. There is a range of issues I have to engage with now, around retention in particular. I envisage looking at all of those in a one-set approach. What tends to happen here is, over the years, all these issues get into a sort of engagement, either conciliation and arbitration, or a kind of a big ping-pong, an ongoing discussion between the Departments of Public...

Select Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Estimates for Public Services 2023
Vote 35 - Army Pensions (Revised)
Vote 36 - Defence (Revised) (14 Feb 2023)

Micheál Martin: I do not have that figure with me. However, right now some people are saying it could be seven to ten people who literally have weeks to go or will be leaving in a short time if something doesn't happen.

Select Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Estimates for Public Services 2023
Vote 35 - Army Pensions (Revised)
Vote 36 - Defence (Revised) (14 Feb 2023)

Micheál Martin: No one has alerted me to the pausing of apprenticeships but yes, I will come back to the Deputy on it.

Select Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Estimates for Public Services 2023
Vote 35 - Army Pensions (Revised)
Vote 36 - Defence (Revised) (14 Feb 2023)

Micheál Martin: "Sacking" is a terrible word, Deputy.

Select Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Estimates for Public Services 2023
Vote 35 - Army Pensions (Revised)
Vote 36 - Defence (Revised) (14 Feb 2023)

Micheál Martin: That is a fair point by the Deputy and I will follow that up.