Defence Forces Dail Éireann — 2026-05-13 ============================================================ Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (SF), Cork South-Central The Minister of State will be aware that the Defences Forces are a significant part of the life of Cork city. I believe it is similar in his own county. Many personnel are stationed in Haulbowline, Collins Barracks and even in Kilworth in Liam Lynch camp. When I talk to people in the Defence Forces, they see a huge discrepancy and a gap between the kind of ambition that the Minister talks about and the manner in which the Defence Forces operate. They say the same that I have said, that the men and women of the Defence Forces are the greatest asset the Defence Forces have. They see a huge gap between that rhetoric and the reality on the ground. There are some positive elements in the Minister of State's response but it still does not really nail down that key issue. When are we going to get a clear definition of the working day? How are we going to ensure that overtime is properly paid? If people are going to leave their families and their responsibilities at home, and be on campus for 24 hours or more, they deserve to properly compensated. They deserve that respect. That is what they would get in other jobs. They recognise that this is not the same as any other job. Of course there will be extenuating circumstances. However, there has to be a definition for what is appropriate overtime and how that is paid. Those issues in terms of on-campus are easy fixes. None of them are very expensive. I also want to briefly raise an issue that has come out of the PDFORRA conference. We wish the delegates the best in their deliberations and I am looking forward to attending later this evening. More than 6,000 personnel are waiting to be paid €3.7 million under claims under local bargaining agreements. Those are agreements already made, reached and owed. The Department of Defence and the Defence Forces are backing the personnel in relation to this. Some senior technicians are owed up to €5,000 each. About 6,000 personnel are down money because the Department of public expenditure has refused to honour agreements that are already made. In the same vein and out of respect for the Defence Forces, will the Minister of State raise the need to release those funds with the Department of public expenditure? --- Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted. Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-05-13/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-09-14T01:01:03+00:00 Sitting date: 2026-05-13