As the Deputy knows, I have been spending a lot of time trying to understand and address some of the current challenges in the Naval Service. Personnel in the Naval Service are paid basic pay, military service allowance and, where appropriate, technical pay at the same rates as their colleagues in the Army and Air Corps. Enlisted personnel of the Naval Service also receive naval pay. I am aware of reports that a small number of personnel have left the Naval Service in recent times to pursue a career in the Army. Th…

The straight answer to the straight question as to whether the role of the Naval Service is being compromised is "Yes". We have a fleet of nine ships. One of them is in service and two are tied up because we do not have sufficient personnel to crew them. Let us call a spade a spade; we have a serious problem in the Naval Service. The service is not at full strength and cannot perform the functions expected of it were it at full strength, although it is doing very well to compensate for that in terms of the work it …

In response to the Deputy's final question, there could be additional demands on the service but people like me and others must try to ensure that we reach a deal on fisheries, trade and a level playing field and fair competition before the end of the year. Those three areas will either all be agreed or none will be agreed, frankly. They come as a package, in parallel. In the absence of an agreement on fisheries, we will have a very complex problem on our hands at sea in terms of tension between fleets and we will …

I propose to take Questions Nos. 10, 26 and 46 together. I take it the Deputy is referring to the absence of the concept of “supplementary pensions” from the provisions of the single public service pension scheme. The occupational pension scheme terms for post-1 January 2013 new entrants to the public service, including the permanent Defence Force, PDF, are governed by the Public Service Pensions (Single Scheme and Other Provisions) Act 2012. All first-time new entrants to pensionable public service employment on o…

As I said, a review and a conversation is ongoing in terms of required retirement ages. As the Deputy knows, there is a reason many in the Defence Forces are required to retire at a certain age. It is a challenging career, so there are age constraints in regard to some of the work that is done. That said, we are discussing and reviewing this at the moment. Many people in their 50s and 60s have pursued successful careers in the private sector and, indeed, the public sector after leaving the Defence Forces. That is w…

The military authorities have advised that the whole-time equivalent strength of the Permanent Defence Force at 31 August 2020 was 8,374 personnel, comprised of Army, 6,763; Air Corps, 716; and Naval Service, 895. I am aware that there continues to be a shortfall between the overall current strength figures and those of the establishment and I am committed to restoring the strength of the Defence Forces to 9,500, which is the figure in the White Paper. The Public Service Pay Commission report and implementation of …

Welcome to the night shift. I hope everyone will stay with us until the early hours. I thank Deputy Brady for asking this question. It is an important issue. Like many other people, I was deeply saddened by the fire at the Moria camp on Lesbos and the impact this has had on refugees and migrants who were based there. The sudden displacement of thousands of people has caused great suffering to those who were in the camp as well as posing a huge logistical challenge for the Greek authorities in the midst of a pandemi…

Ireland has always responded positively to humanitarian crises and we will not be found wanting on this occasion either. As I said in my response, up to 50 people in family groups will be resettled to Ireland from Greece under the Irish refugee protection programme. It would be good if Deputy Brady recognised that, quite frankly. They will be given every support to rebuild their lives here in peace and safety. This is in addition to the commitment we have already made with the United Nations High Commissioner for R…

First, taking in unaccompanied minors is not a straightforward process. It normally involves civil servants from the Department and members of An Garda Síochána interviewing people to ensure they can be brought safely to Ireland and that they are suitable to resettle here and want to come here. Therefore, we are absolutely committed to fulfilling the commitments we have made and I suspect we will probably go beyond. Every time I am contacted by the European Commission to assist in accommodating refugees or asylums …

The Government has made a range of financial and advisory supports available to all sectors, including the haulage and logistics sector. Details can be found in our Brexit Readiness Action Plan which we published a couple of weeks ago. I urge any business moving goods to or through Great Britain to take steps to understand and prepare for the changes that are coming on 1 January, trade deal or no trade deal. It is also important to be aware of the new systems being put in place by UK authorities as set out in the U…

This is an important issue and we need to continue to talk to the sector about all elements of the supply chain. The Department of Transport is in close contact with the shipping sector. Operators have indicated that sufficient shipping capacity is available on direct routes to continental ports. The Department of Transport and the Irish Maritime Development Office concur with that. A number of new direct services have been launched in the past year with extra sailings planned on existing routes. New direct routes …

I wish to reassure the House that we have looked at a subsidised service. Having spoken to the shipping operators, for now anyway we have decided that would not be helpful. There is significant spare capacity and also the potential for shipping companies to shift capacity from the Irish Sea routes and on to direct continental routes out of Ireland if they choose to do that, but they will follow the demand. There are issues with scheduling and the timelines involved. Getting product to and from mainland Europe takes…

I thank the Deputy for this question. Ireland, along with our EU partners, remains deeply concerned about the credible reports regarding the treatment of ethnic Uighurs and other minorities in Xinjiang, including restrictions on freedom of religion and belief, arbitrary detention, widespread surveillance, forced labour, and forced sterilisations and birth control. Ireland has been vocal about raising this issue, along with other partners in the international community. In our national statement at the UN Human Righ…

From my experience, the most effective way to achieve things with China is through dialogue and through building relationships. We will of course be part of the debate and assessment on how the EU should respond to this issue. There is no proposal at the moment for sanctions. There are separate sanctions like arms embargoes and so on that Ireland certainly applies. We are in the middle of this discussion and debate at EU and UN levels. The statement made in the UN today was made by Germany on behalf of quite a numb…

I would be more than happy to do that. If the Deputy can give me the details, I will ensure we pursue it.

I thank the Deputy for raising the issue because it is a developing situation which needs more attention than it is getting, quite frankly, in many capitals across Europe. In relation to the escalating tensions in the eastern Mediterranean, Ireland has consistently called on Turkey to show restraint and respect for the sovereign rights of Cyprus and Greece, and to refrain from actions in the eastern Mediterranean that infringe on international law and risk the stability and security of the region. We continue to st…

As I said in my response, the way this issue will be resolved is through dialogue. The EU of course has tools available to it which it can use to build pressure, including targeted sanctions, economic sanctions and so on. For now it is the view of the EU that introducing sanctions would make it more difficult to make progress with the recent commitment to dialogue between Turkey and Greece. We want to give that process some time and space to produce results that are in the interest of Greece and Turkey and that of …

With respect, I think that is a misreading of the situation. The refugee agreement between the EU and Turkey is something that of course is part of the relationship between them but Turkey's involvement in Libya, Syria and the eastern Mediterranean, tensions with Greece and Cyprus and the tensions between Armenia and Azerbaijan are issues that go well beyond the refugee issue. Standing up and taking on Turkey, as the Deputy describes it, is not necessarily the way to do this. These issues need to be de-escalated th…

I thank the Deputy. Ireland is a long-standing advocate for refugees. For example, in 2016, Ireland co-facilitated the UN summit on refugees and migrants. This summit agreed the New York Declaration, which led to the global compact for refugees and the global compact for safe, orderly and regular migration. The Irish Aid programme, Ireland's official development assistance programme, disburses more than €180 million each year in humanitarian assistance. In 2020, Ireland is providing more than €18.5 million in fundi…

When we achieved what I considered to be a huge achievement in getting a global compact for refugees, which effectively was to try to get a global agreement on how countries should respond to refugees, there was a lot of disagreement on it in the UN. Unfortunately, some very vocal EU member states did not support it. Of course, within the European Union itself, where we should be giving leadership by example to the rest of the world, we have had huge difficulty in agreeing a collective approach towards virtually an…