Mark Wall (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I want to raise a number of matters. There has been a lot of talk in the past number of weeks about our Defence Forces and what future they should or might have within Europe and on the world stage. The desperate and unjustified attack by Russia on the sovereign state of Ukraine has concentrated many minds on this subject. I read yesterday that Cabinet is discussing increasing our defence budget to €2 billion from the current expenditure of approximately €1 billion. In any conversation about the future of our Defence Forces, serving members and their representative associations must be to the forefront.A number of public representatives have called for those representative associations to be allowed to affiliate to ICTU and many of us have been doing so for a number of years. Indeed, the recent report by the Commission on the Defence Forces recommended such an affiliation. The Minister could immediately allow the Permanent Defence Force Other Rank Representatives Association, PDFORRA, and the Representative Association of Commissioned Officers, RACO, to affiliate and to position themselves for forthcoming public pay talks. I appreciate that a debate on this issue has previously been requested. I chaired a Commencement matter in the House recently in response to which the Minister indicated he would return to the House for a discussion on the report on the future of the Defence Forces. It is beyond time that debate took place and I ask the Acting Leader to request that debate as soon as possible.

Separately, I welcome a report published yesterday by Kildare County Council entitled Local Just Transition Plan for West Kildare and recognise the importance of it to so many people who live in that part of my home county. The plan sets out to identify projects to support and advance sustainable social, economic and environmental development in the transition to a low carbon future in west County Kildare. Given the historical dependence of this region of Kildare on Bord na Móna and given the many great bogs in the area, this report and the way in which its recommendations will be supported and implemented will be crucial to all those who live there. The economic and social indices of this region need the urgent supports outlined the report. I look forward to working with Kildare County Council and the Eastern and Midland Regional Assembly on the needs of this region. The many great communities of west County Kildare, including Kilberry, Kildangan, Monasterevin, Rathangan, Ballyteigh, Milltown and Carbury, need the support of this report. They need investment urgently and I look forward to working with the House and Kildare County Council in that regard.

Finally, I again raise the issue of secretarial pay. The Acting Leader, as a member of the Houses of the Oireachtas Commission, has spoken about this previously. We had a debate in the House a number of months ago about the urgent need to justify the pay of our secretarial assistants. I have not heard much recently, other than having read about it in national newspapers. Will the Acting Leader or the Cathaoirleach update us on the issue?