Gerard Craughwell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I rise this morning a happy man for once with regard to the Defence Forces. A great piece of work was done by the Department in bringing forward the changes that are coming. It is a great day for the Reserve Defence Forces and private soldiers who will see substantial increases in their income. It gives great hope for the future.

There always has to be a down side and with such a large project and the negotiations that will have led to this, one or two areas need further attention. The first is to reverse the FEMPI cut relating to the special instructors allowance for commissioned officers. Commissioned officers have not fared well in anything that has happened in the Defence Forces in recent times. The other one is the military service allowance. I spoke about this last week. A corporal can now have a greater income than a lieutenant when the lieutenant is his or her supervisor and writes his or her annual appraisals. The equalisation of the military service allowance is something we will work for in the future.

In fairness to the Minister for Defence, he has delivered. I have been hard enough on him and his predecessors down through the years but he has delivered on this one. I see really good times ahead as we start to see the investment that is promised in infrastructure and people. It is a good day. I do not want to put a dampener on it but if the Leader is talking to the Minister, and I compliment him fully, perhaps at some stage before the next budget, we might get a chance to sit down and look at the military service allowance for officers and the special instructors allowance for officers.This was returned to the men but not to the officers. In a similar vein, we need to have a look at the seagoing allowance. These issues are all related to the financial emergency measures in the public interest, FEMPI, legislation and should have been reversed when other FEMPI measures were. All in all, it is a good day. I will leave it at that.