Marc MacSharry (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the House for extending the time for this debate and the Minister of State for making himself available. I commend the Ministers, Deputies Coveney and Kehoe, for their efforts in this regard.

I come from an Army town in the north west with Finner Camp on our doorstep. For many generations, people from my area have served the country loyally in a variety of international missions, as well as with Border responsibilities during the height of the Troubles. We are all very proud of those who have served, as well as the employment it has given across the north west. We all join in welcoming home the 44th Infantry Group today and wishing the 46th Infantry Group well which departed this morning. I am pleased the Minister was there to welcome them home in the early hours of this morning. That is as it should be.

I appreciate the Minister has said he is keeping the situation under review from a safety perspective. However, as an Irish person and as someone from a town with a long association with the military, we are proud that we are playing a role in an international context, particularly in peacekeeping in difficult areas.

The Minister of State will also be aware, and I wish to put on the record of the House, that I had contact with the Taoiseach in June 2014 having been contacted by the wife of a man who had served his country for more than 30 years in more than 13 missions throughout the world on behalf of the Irish Army and whose family were concerned that he was to be subjected to a medical discharge against his will. We contacted the Taoiseach as this lady wished to meet him to discuss the situation. As the man has cancer, the Taoiseach kindly wrote back and said that the Minister of State, Deputy Kehoe, would be prepared to follow up the case and meet the lady in question. Deputy Kehoe kindly contacted me and I put him in direct contact with the lady in question. He gave her a commitment that the man would not be medically discharged. He also gave me the same commitment in person. I am not mentioning names at the express wish of the family at this point. An official from his office contacted the lady just before a review scheduled for 22 July to assure her that her husband would not be getting his P45.

The man subsequently went to the review on 22 July but was informed it was not a review and he was to be discharged. Since then, there has been much correspondence between me, the Minister and the Taoiseach but nothing of substance has come back other than those parrot-like responses that emanate from Departments when they do not know what to say. It was the basic acknowledgments from the office of the Minister of State and the Taoiseach in terms of return phone calls and to the effect that the situation was being looked into. The man was discharged on Monday of this week having served 37 years in the military and been on 13 missions, on the last of which he was diagnosed with cancer. The Norwegian doctor facilitating that mission had to fight with the Irish authorities to repatriate him which ultimately happened but he has been ill since. Without any medical review by the medical corps this man was discharged. This was despite the Minister of State giving me and the man’s wife his word this would not happen.

I hope the proud and brave soldiers of the 44th Infantry Group who came home last night do not have to look forward to the same. Is it standard practice that if a soldier does not recover from cancer quick enough that he or she will be discharged from the military after 37 years of service?