Defence Forces
Dail Éireann — 2026-06-09
============================================================

Helen McEntee (FG), Meath East

The Deputy will be aware that anything we do in this regard has to be very much in line with the parameters of the public pay policy. I am not the Minister for public expenditure and reform. What I can do is look to see whether there are other mechanisms by which we can increase the overall figure. I have met RACO and I have spoken to its representatives about this. I know this is a real priority for it. While I gave a very clear commitment when I met them earlier this year that this is something I would pursue, I have to do it through the various different channels. The issue is on the agenda of the conciliation and arbitration scheme for members of the Permanent Defence Force. I have agreed to see if there is something further or another mechanism or way in which we can address this.
There also has been engagement with the Department of Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation on the issue of cadet pay. It has highlighted again the public service pay agreements and the need to work within those parameters. We also have the local bargaining process. I appreciate that this is taking longer than any of us would like but this allows parties to bring forward proposals up to a maximum value equivalent to 3% of basic pay, with 1% to be paid from the current agreement and then the balance addressed in any successor payment agreement. There are opportunities in the various different processes that I have mentioned to try to address pay and conditions. I may come back in on some of the other areas where we have tried to address what the Deputy said, namely, how, when we get people in, we actually maintain them and improve conditions more broadly; not just for cadets.

---

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/2026-06-09/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-09-14T01:01:05+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-06-09