Results 1,521-1,540 of 14,127 for speaker:David Stanton

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Naval Service (3 Oct 2023)

David Stanton: I want to ask the Minister if he has considered a retention payment to encourage personnel to remain in the Naval Service, given the fact that there is an issue with the number of personnel. As part of that, has he looked at the single pension scheme which, RACO told us today, seems to be the trigger for a lot of people leaving the Defence Forces? Has he considered a specialised instructors...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Naval Service (3 Oct 2023)

David Stanton: I thank the Minister for his response and encourage him to continue with the work of advancing the suggestions and proposals he put forward. Can he give us any idea as to when the Commission on Defence Forces recommendation that the naval seagoing tax credit and the Naval Service seagoing commitment scheme be replaced with a less complex seagoing duty measure? Could he also give any idea...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Naval Service (3 Oct 2023)

David Stanton: I thank the Minister for his response, the work he is doing and his commitment to this. Would he agree that this is now urgent? For example, the number of people who were approved last year for the seagoing commitment scheme was 32, something the Secretary General of the Department of Defence told us last week. These schemes are extraordinarily complex, and hard to understand and qualify...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Current Issues Facing Members of the Defence Forces: Representative Association of Commissioned Officers (3 Oct 2023)

David Stanton: RACO has sent the committee a lot of information on the voluntary retirement scheme and the Amárach Research member survey. I thank the witnesses for that and thank Mr. O’Mearain for his opening statement. I join colleagues in congratulating the members who were involved in the event last week off the coast. I recognise the skill and courage they showed. It was a dangerous...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Current Issues Facing Members of the Defence Forces: Representative Association of Commissioned Officers (3 Oct 2023)

David Stanton: Last week, I asked a question about the number of personnel on the seagoing commitment scheme. The Secretary General told me there were 32 applications approved in January 2022. What does that mean from RACO’s point of view?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Current Issues Facing Members of the Defence Forces: Representative Association of Commissioned Officers (3 Oct 2023)

David Stanton: The Secretary General did say she was hopeful they would come to a conclusion in the coming weeks. Is that Mr. O’Mearain’s sense?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Current Issues Facing Members of the Defence Forces: Representative Association of Commissioned Officers (3 Oct 2023)

David Stanton: I am quite confused about the thing. It is not easy to get my head around it. I understand what the representatives are saying. Last week, I also asked about retention payments. I was told it is not working so well in America. Have retention payments been mentioned in RACO’s discussion at any stage? What is its view on it? I am thinking about someone committing to stay on for...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Current Issues Facing Members of the Defence Forces: Representative Association of Commissioned Officers (3 Oct 2023)

David Stanton: Captain Bray is saying that even with this payment in place, we still see fairly high attrition.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Current Issues Facing Members of the Defence Forces: Representative Association of Commissioned Officers (3 Oct 2023)

David Stanton: Other factors that were mentioned such as quality of life and so on come into to play, along with the pension issue that was discussed earlier.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Current Issues Facing Members of the Defence Forces: Representative Association of Commissioned Officers (3 Oct 2023)

David Stanton: I will be brief. I have only two more questions. The witnesses also gave us a paper - we have it here - about their survey of voluntary retired officers from 2020 to 2022. In the paper there is quite a lot with respect to people returning to the Defence Forces and the first-line Reserve and so forth. According to this paper, 14% of those surveyed had applied for the first-line Reserve and...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Current Issues Facing Members of the Defence Forces: Representative Association of Commissioned Officers (3 Oct 2023)

David Stanton: Is that right?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Current Issues Facing Members of the Defence Forces: Representative Association of Commissioned Officers (3 Oct 2023)

David Stanton: There is also the high-level steering board of the Commission on the Defence Forces chaired by the Secretary General of the Department of the Taoiseach and the implementation oversight group. We should maybe invite both of those before us shortly. They have direct responsibility for oversight too.

Written Answers — Department of Defence: Naval Service (3 Oct 2023)

David Stanton: 85. To ask the Taoiseach and Minister for Defence the number of naval personnel who availed of the Naval Service seagoing commitment in 2021 and in 2022; the total amount drawn down in each of these years; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [41036/23]

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Current Issues Facing Members of the Defence Forces: Representative Association of Commissioned Officers (3 Oct 2023)

David Stanton: I have a final question. It has been said to us more than once - the witnesses alluded to this - that we are beyond full employment. It is a term I heard last week. We are all inundated with people contacting us from the private sector saying that they cannot get workers. When they look at the Defence Forces they see a cadre of highly trained, highly disciplined, very able people and they...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Postal Services (28 Sep 2023)

David Stanton: Does the Minister of State know when these particular postal areas were put in place? I have seen various dates like 1917, and so on, being mentioned. If the Minister of State looks at any map, he can see that in many instances these areas are arbitrary and unwieldy. There does not seem to be any rationale behind them. They cross county bounds. As an answer to the Minister of State's...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Postal Services (28 Sep 2023)

David Stanton: I thank the Minister of State. As I said, I am interested in the issue of publicity post. It is something I have raised with An Post. I am sure the Minister of State is aware that there are 272 separate delivery zones across the country. I am not sure when they were put in place but they seem quite archaic and arbitrary. Some of them cross county bounds and some businesses tell me they...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Postal Services (28 Sep 2023)

David Stanton: 79. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment to report on his most recent engagements with An Post management; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [41156/23]

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Postal Services (28 Sep 2023)

David Stanton: I thank the Minister of State for being here. This question relates to any recent meetings he has had with An Post and any proposals or plans that body has to make changes and improvements into the future. I will also be bringing up the issue of publicity post in my supplementary questions.