Gabrielle McFadden (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State to the House. I had the pleasure of welcoming him to Athlone earlier this month when he reviewed the 110th Infantry Battalion as it headed on its tour of duty. As a nation, we take great pride in the services rendered by the men and women of the Army, the Naval Service, the Air Corps, the Reserve Defence Force and the Civil Defence. We are glad to have them in times of need. When they engage in peacekeeping abroad, provide rescue services at home and save refugees in the Mediterranean, they give of themselves willingly and risk their own safety to ensure that of others. When flooding affected Athlone and many other areas in 2015, my instinctive first reaction was to call the then Minister for Defence, Deputy Coveney, to ask for the help of Army personnel. Yet again, they delivered by going above and beyond the call of duty to build flood defences and feed volunteers.

Our Defence Forces provide a diverse range of specialist capabilities across all services that support citizens and the State in security and crisis situations. This professionalism and dedication to demanding challenges, which is unique to military service, should be acknowledged by the Government. It is clear to me, having spoken to many members of the Defence Forces, that certain issues are having a negative effect on morale. As I said in this House last week, we must put our money where our mouth is. According to the White Paper on Defence, which was published in 2015, "defence is the ultimate guarantee of freedom". If we truly value this freedom. we must do our duty by putting in place measures and initiatives to demonstrate our commitment to these men and women.

Currently, most sectors of the Defence Forces are running below their establishment figure. This is a particular problem in specialist areas like bomb disposal, operational command, marine and electrical engineering, medicine and information technology. I am aware that the Minister of State has been working hard to address this, with 860 personnel being recruited this year in addition to the 690 personnel taken in last year.Recruitment alone, however, will not solve the problems unless retention of our most experienced staff is also tackled. We are losing them as fast as we are bringing them in. As the economy continues to recover, more and more opportunities are opening up for employment in other sectors and many serving personnel are leaving to take these opportunities up. More than 2,000 members have left the Defence Forces since 2013. We now find ourselves in a situation where many important and skilled positions are left unfilled.

We need to ensure that service in the Army is an attractive career option for young men and women. Currently, and unbelievably, enlisted recruits are among the lowest paid public employees, with a basic salary starting at just €18,000 per annum. As has been said, many rely on the family income supplement and other State supports, which speaks for itself. This is totally unacceptable. I know that many of these issues are a hangover from cuts made by the last Fianna Fáil Government, which saw Defence Forces numbers fall to 8,000. Certain allowances were withdrawn and cut. It does not matter whose fault it is, we now have to fix it. We must bring the numbers back up to 9,500 and increase the income to a level that fits the esteem in which we hold the Defence Forces. I ask the Minister to consider the case for an increase in the military service allowance, which is payable to all Defence Forces personnel. It is intended to compensate servicemen and servicewomen for the unique conditions and special disadvantages of military life, which are acknowledged by the Department of Defence in its initial submission to the Public Service Pay Commission. An increase in this allowance would benefit all personnel equally but it would not impact on the wider public service as it is a sector-specific allowance.

However, pay is not the only issue leading to demoralisation within the forces. There seem to be inordinate delays in routine matters such as progressing the 276 promotions from sergeant to sergeant major rank that are outstanding and the promotions of 107 privates to corporal. This suggests a degree of inertia within the Department and perhaps even a lack of co-operation between some officials and the military leadership. I call on the Minister of State to look at his Department in order to assess where pinch-points can be eliminated. There is a case for an increased role for military management in the area of HR policy to ensure that policy reflects the unique demands of military service.

Morale in the Army was damaged by the reorganisation of the brigade structure in 2012 and 2013. I was very vocal at the time in expressing my opposition to the removal of brigade status from Custume Barracks. The broader point, however, is that the reorganisation, as has been said earlier, has left many soldiers travelling long distances to carry out their duties. There are other issues, including pension entitlements, obligatory discharge ages, treatment for those suffering with post-traumatic stress disorder and implementation of the adjudicator’s findings for soldiers recruited after 1994 to name but a few.

While speaking of showing esteem to our Defence Forces, I appeal to the Minister of State to award individual citations and medals to each of the soldiers of A Company, 35th Infantry Battalion who were involved in the siege of Jadotville in 1961. While the unit citation was a recognition of their collective heroism and professionalism, I believe that each of them deserves individual acknowledgement.

Coming back to the current matters, I am not raising these issues to be critical. I welcome the increases in capital and current expenditure in defence and the Minister of State’s efforts to deal with the issues around recruitment and retention. What I am doing is outlining some of the challenges that we face. By addressing them in a positive and determined fashion we can show our commitment to the men and women of the Defence Forces. As we move towards the centenary of the establishment of the National Army in 1922, we must put in place the structures and the funding necessary to ensure that Óglaigh na hEireann are motivated and resourced and can start into their second century ready to meet the changing needs of our great country.