Mark Ward (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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347. To ask the Taoiseach and Minister for Defence the status of the Irish veterans' charter; and the number of meetings held between the Defence Forces, his Department and the two nominated veterans' organisations (details supplied). [8300/21]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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My Department formally recognises the two veterans’ organisations referenced by the Deputy as representing all former personnel, namely, the Irish United Nations Veterans Association (IUNVA) and Óglaigh Náisiúnta na hÉireann (ONE), the Organisation of National Ex-Service Personnel.

As part of the supports currently offered to retired members of the Defence Forces, my Department has Service Level Agreements (SLAs) in place with these associations which set out the services and financial supports that the Department provides.

I am aware that the associations have proposed a range of further supports that would be available to former members of the Defence Forces. My Department has engaged with them on exploring further these proposals.

In recent years both associations have received increases to their grant allocations. The programme for Government also contains a commitment to further develop the supports to veterans. My Department has secured funding under the Dormant Accounts Fund Action Plan 2020 to assist them with specific special projects and has also provided further supports in developing the network of centres.

My Department seeks to meet with the Veterans' Associations on at least four occasions per annum, at least one of which I attend. Whilst the Covid restrictions disrupted this schedule in 2020, I met the Associations by video link in November 2020 and a range of issues of interest to the Associations were raised.