Gerard Craughwell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank my colleague, Senator O'Donovan, for speaking out today. So many people do not speak out. I have personal experience within my family of somebody with epilepsy and it is a tough station.

I thank Senator Kyne for raising the planning issue. We have seen what it did in Galway and Athenry, particularly, and it would be good to have that debate.

I am very proud to stand here this morning and to advise anybody who does not know that Ireland's first female Defence Forces general has smashed through the glass ceiling in defence. Major General Maureen O'Brien has been promoted and will serve her time, for now anyway, as military adviser to the United Nations Secretary General. This is a very proud moment for Ireland. However, such good news has been soured slightly by the story that ran in the Irish Examinerat the weekend of Chief Petty Officer Tadhg McCarthy, who after 24 years as an engine room artificer, has left the Naval Service.In leaving the service, he speaks of a vicious cycle. The less the manpower available, the more the Naval Service is asking of the people who are left and the increased pressure is, in turn, leading more people to leave. I note that Commodore Malone was obliged to take two ships out of service last year and it looks very much as though more will be taken out of service in the not-too-distant future.

Mr. McCarthy addressed the Government initiative, the sea service commitment scheme, and pointed out that it has led to a two-tier Naval Service. Someone who has served longer than three years has an entitlement to the €10,000 pay-out but those with less than three years' service do not qualify for that payment. PDFORRA and the Representative Association of Commissioned Officers, RACO, have both maintained that increasing special allowances across all boards would be vitally important and it was part of the high-level implementation plan. As the Deputy Leader has worn the uniform with pride herself, she will understand where I am coming from here today.

The Government does not have time for the Commission on the Defence Forces to report. Too many people are leaving right now. We have seen in the case of the Air Corps that once brought in, an initiative can have a dramatic effect on retention if it is implemented quickly. We need to start an implementation process right across the Defence Forces or there will be nobody left. PDFORRA has constantly asked for membership of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, ICTU. The Minister has said "No" and that he favours a commission on pay instead. Unless that commission can go outside the terms of national pay agreements agreed with ICTU, we are simply going nowhere.

Finally, those of us in politics, in uniform and in the Civil Service who have overseen the decline and destruction of the Defence Forces need to hang our heads in shame. What has gone on is outrageous. The first and most loyal to respond every time are being treated appallingly.