I move: That Dáil Éireann approves the report by the Minister for Defence regarding service by the Defence Forces with the United Nations in 2021, a copy of which was laid before Dáil Éireann on 30th March, 2022, in accordance with Section 13 of the Defence (Amendment) Act, 2006.

I move: That, in accordance with the Programme for Government commitments, Dáil Éireann approves Ireland's participation in four Permanent Structured Cooperation (PESCO) Projects: i) Cyber Threats and Incident Response Information Sharing Platform, ii) Deployable Military Disaster Relief Capability Package, iii) Special Operations Forces Medical Training Centre, and iv) Maritime (semi) Autonomous Systems for Mine Countermeasures.

I thank the Deputy for giving me an opportunity to update the House on this issue. I am fully committed to ensuring that every member of the Defence Forces has the right to undertake their duties in a safe environment underpinned by dignity and equality. As the Deputy is aware, there was extensive engagement with the Women of Honour group and other stakeholders on the establishment of an independent review to examine issues relating to unacceptable behaviour in the Defence Forces. Without question, the engagements …

I, too, want to recognise the significance of that documentary and the bravery of those who contributed to it and, indeed, what that triggered, which was that many others were willing to come forward and speak either in confidence to me at meetings that we set up for that purpose, or speak out publicly. In terms of the judge-led independent review, we will get the interim report that I asked for by midsummer, which is the end of July. I will hopefully be able to act on some of the recommendations that may come from…

There is a lot happening in this space. Last October, I introduced a number of interim support measures for both serving and former members of the Defence Forces impacted by unacceptable behaviour in the workplace. I appointed a confidential contact person, CCP, within an external independent company, Raiseaconcern, to assist both serving and former members of the Defence Forces. The CCP provides a safe place to support the reporting of wrongdoing in the workplace. The CCP is independent and is outside of the Defen…

As the Deputy is aware, the Commission on the Defence Forces has undertaken a significant body of work encompassing wide-ranging terms of reference, including an examination of the evolution of remuneration systems and structures currently in place in the Defence Forces. The report makes a number of recommendations in this regard, including on pay structures, pay review, pay bargaining and ICTU. These recommendations are significant and require detailed consideration. In regard to the ICTU recommendation, the Deput…

I am not sure about recognising that the commission's recommendations on pay would be the equivalent of a Labour Court recommendation but certainly they need to be taken seriously, regardless of what equivalence there may be. The Government needs to deliver on the recommendations of this commission report. It is credible and badly needed. It has exposed significant capacity gaps in our defence infrastructure that need to be responded to. I hope to be able to bring the report to the Government very shortly. I cannot…

As the Deputy will be aware, the Minister for Defence does not make a final decision, certainly not on their own, in regard to pay and allowances in the Defence Forces and how the military is treated in terms of public sector pay policy. That requires the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform's approval. The Deputy will have seen for example the Naval Service supports on going to sea and how long it took to get agreement on those issues. We are in the middle of a pay discussion at the moment and I need to be …

That is a fair question. As the Deputy will be aware, the Defence Forces are currently excluded from the provisions of the Organisation of Working Time Act 1997, which transposed the EU working time directive into Irish law. The Government, however, has committed to amending this Act and bringing both the Defence Forces and An Garda Síochána within the scope of its provisions where appropriate. The EU working time directive recognises the specific nature of certain military activities and allows for derogations or …

First, I met RACO on this and other issues last week and we had a discussion on it. However, the process that involves civil and military management needs to conclude first in terms of understanding the Chief of Staff and the General Staff's concerns around ensuring we have a functioning military and learning from international experience around what is and is not appropriate, where derogations from the working time directive are concerned, to facilitate the running of a military. I understand that process is close…

This is just a sequencing issue. We need to conclude the work between civil and military management first so we actually know what we are consulting on. My understanding is that work is now very close to completion and I gave an assurance to RACO last week that then we would move to the structure around proper consultation to ensure everybody understands the rationale for all the decisions. That process will happen as soon as we can do it. I want to get on with this so we can then talk to the Tánaiste's office abou…

The Commission on the Defence Forces was established on foot of a commitment in the programme for Government. As Minister for Defence, I welcomed the publication of the report of the commission on 9 February last.  The commission has undertaken a significant body of work that encompassed wide-ranging terms of reference.  The report contains 69 main recommendations with a large number of sub-recommendations totalling 130 individual recommendations.  It recommends significant changes for the Defence Forces and defenc…

Nobody is dithering and neither is anybody denying we have had significant recruitment and retention pressures in the Naval Service for many months now. We have discussed this both publicly and privately many times so let us get back to the real issue here, which is delivering a comprehensive Government decision on the back of a really good commission report that gives us an evidence base to act on. We also need to recognise we are acting in the context of a different international security environment now because …

I assure the House that nobody is seeking to use the war in Ukraine to do anything apart from to have an honest conversation in respect of what our security needs are, how we respond to them and how, as a member of the European Union and a contributing state on this Continent, we can contribute to peace and security on the Continent of Europe. That is a perfectly valid debate to have. Ireland's neutrality, which is defined as non-alignment in terms of a defence pact, is one thing but Ireland is not neutral on the w…

I have previously acknowledged the staffing challenges in the Defence Forces, both in specialist and general roles, and a range of measures are being implemented to tackle these. In this regard, I recently launched the new Defence Forces recruitment rebrand, entitled Be More with the Irish Defence Forces.  By demonstrating the opportunities and skills a career in the Defence Forces offers, the new marketing strategy aligns the desire to continuously improve and learn new skills with ensuring long-term career advanc…

The Deputy referred to my recent visit to Cork. I live there, actually. I live a couple of miles from the naval base, so I visit it regularly. "No" is the straight answer to the Deputy's question. I was not informed that another ship would potentially be tied up. We are seeking to decommission three ships in the Naval Service. That is well known at this stage. To replace them, we have purchased two new ships that are coming from New Zealand and will be in at the end of the first quarter of next year. We are then go…

First, Deputy Clarke knows only too well what the qualification criteria are for the seagoing service commitment scheme. We were required to put those criteria in place to ensure the scheme was not just seen as a way of securing a pay rise. We are looking at whether we can review the qualification criteria to get more people into the scheme, which would be helpful. Deputy Stanton has asked me before about the psychometric tests. I have had conversations in this regard with people in the Defence Forces. Two things n…

We are looking at that at the moment. Ultimately, however, the decision has to come from the Defence Forces, rather than politicians, in terms of maintaining standards.

Following a conference at Ramstein Air Base in Germany on 26 April, organised by the United States to discuss the Russian invasion of Ukraine, particularly Ukraine's defence capabilities, as well as to pledge and co-ordinate further support to Ukraine, Ireland was invited to join the newly-formed Ukraine Defense Contact Group. Meetings of the group took place on 23 May and 15 June. On both occasions, Ireland was represented at senior official level by the Department of Defence and at senior military level by the De…

There were many countries in attendance who are not in NATO. We are not neutral in this war. I have used my voice around the Security Council table and within the EU and the Council of Europe to look at ways in which we can promote peace and bring an end to this madness. I have been to Turkey and have spoken to the Turkish foreign minister about that country's efforts, co-ordinating with the UN and with Moscow, in terms of trying to get ships out of ports near Odesa that are bringing grain from Ukraine. There are m…