Gerard Craughwell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

That was excellent timing; I thank the Cathaoirleach. This week, we learned again of an assault on gardaí. We are in a situation where the uniformed services are falling apart. Seven or eight years ago, I started talking about the problems in the Defence Forces. It took six years to get a commission in place and we are still waiting to see its output. The strength of the Defence Forces is now below 8,000.

An Garda Síochána is finding it impossible to recruit. The truth of the matter is that the overarching hand of the Department of Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform in every organ of the State must be controlled. The Department was a great organisation when it was needed to get the economy back on track. Now, however, hiring at any level in the Civil Service almost requires the sanction of its Secretary General. That is just far too controlling.

Nobody will stay in uniform with the pensions available under the 2013 pension schemes, particularly members of the Defence Forces and An Garda Síochána. They are outrageous pensions that offer nothing. People speak of gold-plated pensions in the public service, but they are no longer available. Who would take a job in the public service when we speak of career averages and so on? This applies not just to the Army or the Garda but also to prison officers, nurses and all those on the front line. We have to wake up or we will have no gardaí. No young man and woman would want to join a force where they are at risk every night of the week of being beaten up and attacked and various activities such as cars being rammed are taking place.

There are under 8,000 people in the Defence Forces. We bigged ourselves up in Europe this week. We are sending 30 people out to train Ukrainians and we are joining a battle group, but to do that we have to leave the Golan Heights. We are running the Garda and the Defence Forces into the ground and it has to stop. We need a debate on front-line services across all Departments. I will leave that with the Leader.