Seán Kyne (Galway West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Senator Gallagher for raising this matter, which I am taking on behalf of the Minister of State at the Department of Defence, Deputy Kehoe, who, as a super junior Minister, sits at Cabinet. The Taoiseach has full responsibility for defence matters and sits at the Cabinet table so such matters are well covered.

Defence Force Regulations, DFR, A11, governs the granting of leave, other than sick leave, in the Permanent Defence Force.As part of normal personnel management, the granting of annual leave is a balance between the entitlement of the individual to annual leave and the requirement to ensure continuity of a public service. Paragraph 16 of DFR A11 provides for the carrying forward of annual leave, not granted or availed of in the leave year concerned. This can be of benefit both to the individual and the organisation. Officers may be allowed to carry forward a maximum of 24 days, non-commissioned officers and privates in the Army and Air Corps a maximum of 19 days, and non-commissioned officers and ordinary or able seamen of the Naval Service a maximum of 24 days. In addition, members are entitled to Defence Force holidays, which include all public holidays along with the 1916 Commemoration day, 11 July and 15 August. The Minister is also authorised to grant such other days, usually in the form of additional days leave at Easter and Christmas, such as Holy Saturday and Easter Sunday, to the Defence Forces to reflect the leave allowable to other public servants who work on a five-day a week basis.

A request to increase the number of carryover days has been considered. The current carryover has been found to be proportionate and reasonable. I have been advised by Department of Defence officials that three plenary summonses have been taken by members of the Defence Forces in relation to the transposition of the working time directive and the carryover of annual leave. Given that these matters are before the courts it would be inappropriate to comment further on the legal proceedings which have been commenced in this matter.

The conciliation and arbitration scheme for members of the Permanent Defence Force, PDF, provides a formal mechanism for the PDF representative associations, RACO and PDFORRA, to engage with the official side. The purpose of the scheme is to provide a means for the determination of claims and proposals from the associations relating to remuneration and conditions of service. It is open to the representative associations to submit claims to the official side in relation to matters falling within the conciliation and arbitration scheme. Generally, claims relate to pay and conditions, award of allowances etc. When submitted, these claims are generally the subject of negotiations and where agreement is not reached it is open to both sides to seek the assistance of an adjudicator to settle the matter.

The Minister has received representations from PDFORRA seeking to have access to the Workplace Relations Commission and the Labour Court made available to it in the event of any future legislative changes being made to provide An Garda Síochána with access to same. The proposals in relation to An Garda Síochána being granted such access will require detailed legislative change and the Department of Justice and Equality has established a working group to examine in detail what future legislative changes are required. While present arrangements have worked well, it is intended to review the conciliation and arbitration scheme and the Minister has agreed that this should happen towards the end of this year. This review will be informed by any future arrangements to be made for An Garda Síochána.