Mark Wall (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the long-awaited report by the Commission on the Future of the Defence Forces, which was published yesterday. I welcome the emphasis on personnel. It is vital that the Minister for Defence immediately agrees with the recommendation in the report that the representative associations be allowed affiliate with ICTU, an outcome that I, on behalf of the Labour Party, have been calling for in this House over the past number of years. This should be the first important step in delivering the outcomes of this report and can be done immediately.

The recommendation of the commission that the blanket exclusion of the Defence Forces from the Organisation of Working Time Act be removed is also to be welcomed. For serving members, getting rid of what many describe as free labour by rigorously enforcing the working time directive with appropriate compensation for those who work longer hours would be welcomed. I also welcome the emphasis placed on women and indeed men who want flexible and remote working opportunities. The bottom line is that in order to build our Defence Forces, we must retain the expertise and skills that exist in the Defence Forces and in doing so, pay, allowances and flexible work practices must be the first outcome of this new report. I would have liked to see more emphasis on accommodation for those who enlist and serve. This is an issue of retention of those who serve given the housing crisis.

We in the Labour Party welcome the report. I look forward to discussing its findings with the Minister, as previously indicated. There is a need to look at how this report will be implemented. I believe, as does my party, that we must ensure that the Minister of State is at the head or driving this report forward such is its importance and how critical it is to the future of our national security. Government must consider releasing him from other important jobs he has. Given the serious workload of the senior Minister, we believe this is critical. We cannot allow this report to sit on the shelf. This must be the watershed moment about which the Minister spoke when he was in the Seanad last week. There can be no turning back. We must invest in our Defence Forces and, critically, the representative associations of those who serve must be front and centre of the implementation of this report. I welcome the report on gambling that was published yesterday by the Health Research Board. It is essential that we see the promised Government legislation on gambling. The report in question highlights that we could have 137,000 people on the gambling spectrum, and 12,000 problem gamblers. It also states that this figure may be an underestimate in light of the lack of responses from young males. Whatever the true figure, we cannot allow those estimated 137,000 people to continue to be at risk of gambling addiction and to have the potential for 120,000 of them to develop an even more serious habit. This is a public health issue and those affected need help. They also need legislation straight away.