Gerard Craughwell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

Speaking as a veteran of the Defence Forces, I welcome the Minister. I am confused sitting here today. I have heard Members talking about neutrality and military non-alignment all in the same breath. These are polar opposites. We have a huge problem when we start talking about neutrality. Let us take a definition of neutrality from the Department of Foreign Affairs. In paragraph 4.5 of chapter 4 of Challenges and Opportunities Abroad: White Paper on Foreign Policy, which was published in 1995, neutrality is defined as follows:

In the strict sense of international law and practice, neutrality and its attendant rights and duties do not exist in peacetime; they arise only during a state of war. Neutrality represents an attitude of impartiality adopted by a state towards the participants in a conflict and recognised as such by the belligerents. Such an attitude creates certain rights and duties between the neutral state and the belligerents which commence at the outbreak of war and end with its cessation.

The programme for Government states that Irish people take great pride in the Permanent Defence Force and the men and women who serve this country with pride and distinction. The public might, but few governments have ever rewarded the loyalty freely given by these excellent woman and men who serve in the Defence Forces. If we are to be a truly neutral State, we have certain obligations. I ask the Minister to explain to the public how the Government will ensure there is respect for our so-called neutrality. Can we meet the most basic requirement to underpin our so-called sovereignty? For example, if necessary, could we use force to repel any violation of our territory? The Minister has held the portfolio for defence for over five of the past ten years. He presides now over the lowest headcount in the Permanent Defence Force in 50 years. Does the fact that so many of our skilled personnel walking out in their droves keep the Minister awake at night? We are the only country in the EU without a full-time Minister for Defence. That is not the Minister's fault or that of the Cabinet. However, I think our Ministers are over-burdened in the number of portfolios they carry.

The Report of the Commission on the Defence Forces has done little to halt the exodus from the Defence Forces. The years of investment in our Naval Service have been lost as ships are decommissioned simply because we do not have crews for them.The Air Corps is 50% deficient on technicians, and 26% below establishment. Our young pilots are being sent to the four corners of the world to be trained. Clearly, we are way beyond defending anything.

We have outsourced the search and rescue operation at enormous cost to the taxpayer. I wonder what the Air Corps could have achieved had it been tasked with search and rescue, SAR. What real support did the Minister give to the Air Corps with its bid? Its 415-page submission was critiqued by a three-page piece of rubbish without any empirical evidence. I sent the Minister a copy of that when I got it on freedom of information, FOI. I cannot believe that the Government in which the Minister sits has kicked out a proposal by the Air Corps on a piece of rubbish that was written with nothing to support it.

The Army is suffering. Our ordnance people are overworked completely. There are hundreds of non-commissioned officer, NCO, vacancies. Getting a decision recently, on which I commend the Minister because he fought hard for it, to retain sergeants took months.

The Government keeps lumping the Defence Forces into the public service when it comes to pay and conditions. Like it or lump it, jobs differ greatly across the public service. None can be truly benchmarked against the Defence Forces. Defence Forces personnel have no protections in the Workplace Relations Commission. They have no working time directive as we speak. They are not permitted overtime. They cannot take industrial action for better working conditions. They must pass medical and fitness, and drugs, tests on a regular basis. Moreover, they are subject to archaic and obscure military law processes and are forced to retire early. Even when there is an adjudication, as in the case of the Army Ranger Wing, now 30 years old, the Government simply chooses to ignore the income that those men, the ones who put themselves on the line, are entitled to.

If we scratch the surface of the Defence Forces, it is much worse. The numbers are artificially inflated by the inclusion of recruits, privates, cadets, second lieutenants and apprentices. Many of the apprentices are looking for a way out already. Indeed, we recently saw an entire class bought out by a private company. Many of the early post-2013 entrants into the Defence Forces are currently searching every opportunity to get out to good jobs.

The Minister and others from the Government proclaimed at the start of the Russian-Ukrainian war that Ireland was not neutral in this conflict. What authority did the Minister have to make that statement? The Minister and the Taoiseach have made this statement that we are not neutral in the case of the Ukrainian war. It never came before the House of the Oireachtas. Nobody in this House had a say.