Seán Crowe (Dublin South West, Sinn Fein)
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157. To ask the Minister for Defence if he is aware that the Permanent Defence Forces Other Ranks’ Representative Association, PDFORRA, has stated that the crew of the LE Eithne are not receiving the proper daily allowances from his Department and are being underpaid for their work, that PDFORRA believe the crew, who have rescued over 3,400 persons, should be entitled to the higher allowance, as the LE Eithne is armed, and the crew have been armed at various times; that PDFORRA have not received an offer from your Department on its second request for allowance increases, and believes the excellent work of the crew is not being properly rewarded; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [29419/15]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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Members of the Naval Service engaged in the Maritime Humanitarian Search and Rescue Operation in the Mediterranean are being paid the rate for “Unarmed Peace Support Allowance”.  This allowance is currently exempt from Income Tax.

The Allowance is a daily allowance paid to each member of the crew from the date the vessel left the Naval Base to deploy on the Mediterranean Operation to the date of return.

The rate for the allowance ranges from €55.14 up to €79.51 per day depending on rank (€385.98 to €556.57 per week tax free).

Full Details of the rate currently payable are set out below.

Where a mission is an armed mission e.g. the UNIFIL and UNDOF missions, an additional “Armed Peace Support Allowance” is paid.  The daily rate for this allowance ranges from €21.22 to €22.24 per day.  So for these missions the total allowance ranges from €76.36 to €101.75 per day (€534.52 to €712.04 per week tax free).

The rate being paid to the Naval Service personnel is the same rate as is being paid to members of the Permanent Defence Force engaged in the humanitarian operation tackling the Ebola virus in Sierra Leone. Humanitarian operations are not armed operations in the sense of the missions in Lebanon or UNDOF, where they require to be armed and be able to deliver an armed response to events on the ground as part of the mission mandate. Clearly the humanitarian operation in the Mediterranean does not fall within these parameters. In addition, the fact that Naval Vessels carry arms and have installed guns does not of itself make this an armed mission.

PDFORRA have made a claim for additional payments for PDFORRA members of the Naval Service deployed on humanitarian relief and rescue duties in the Mediterranean. They are seeking payment of the Armed Peace Support Allowance and Patrol Duty Allowance in addition to the Unarmed Peace Support Allowance. The claim is being processed through the Conciliation and Arbitration Scheme for Members of the Permanent Defence Force process. As such matters are confidential to that process, it would be inappropriate for me to make any comment on these pay claims at this time.