Gerard Craughwell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

When will the Government recognise there is more to Irish politics than political parties? The Minister of State at the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government, Deputy Phelan, has proposed an initiative to attract more women into local politics in which he is offering €100 per candidate to political parties. What about the fine Independent women who represent their local communities throughout the country? If this Government was serious about wanting women in politics, they would provide crèche facilities in local council areas and incentives for women to participate at reasonable hours of the day, not late into the night. They would provide incentives for women who are post maternity or post delivering a child where they would have additional supports to allow them to continue on. Politics is the only profession in which a woman, having delivered a child, cannot take maternity leave because her seat depends on her activity within the political area.While it is good to see the Minster of State, Deputy Phelan, providing funding to assist women, the notion that it apply only to political parties is repugnant in every way.

On a separate issue but again related to careers, research carried out by Amárach Research for the Representative Association of Commissioned Officers, RACO, shows that 79% of officers entering the Defence Forces see themselves departing in their 30s. It is no longer seen as a career but a stepping stone to one. This is to the detriment of the Defence Forces. If one allies it to the current initiative by the Minister of State to undertake continuous recruitment, we must ask where are we going. Do we not understand the only way to solve the problem in the Defence Forces is through retention? If we continue on this route, we will finish up with the Defence Forces - the Army, the Naval Service and the Air Corps - being staffed by very senior officers and NCOs and very junior officers, private soldiers, airmen and sailors. Those in the experienced middle ranks will have dissipated and left the Defence Forces forever. This week the Defence Forces have called out yet again on the issue of bomb disposal duties. We have to change the mood music in that regard and start to attract people to stay. The only way to do this is by giving them a living wage, something we are not doing. The Leader will refer me to the Public Service Pay Commission which is analysing salary entitlements in the Defence Forces, but we have to keep this issue on the agenda or there will be no one left in the Defence Forces at the rate things are going. Personnel are walking out of them. We are losing 80 officers a year, while enlisted men and women who have completed an apprenticeship in the Defence Forces are buying themselves out at a cost of up to €40,000. That cannot continue.

It is deeply regrettable that the nurses have not found a solution to their industrial dispute. Therefore, I fear the worst for the health service in the coming days and weeks.