Senator Gerard Craughwell- speech from 14 Oct 2021

I welcome the additional 800 Gardaí announced in the budget and the 400 civilian staff that are to be provided to the Gardaí, however it is in sharp contrast with what is going on in the Defence Forces, a paltry £35 million into the budget for the Defence Forces for the coming year will only cover the increase in salaries that came as a result of the most recent public service round. Now we were hosted last week in Hall Boland in Cork, the Naval Service Depot, by the flag officer and his entire team down there and I've got to tell you, Leader, it is absolutely appalling what's going on. Seven of our nine ships were tied up last Friday in Hall Boland. We have European vessels coming into the Irish coastal waters to patrol Irish fishery areas. Have we no pride left whatsoever in this country? Have we no pride in the service that we should be offering? A sailor going to sea gets €56 per day while at sea subject to tax, PRSI, USC etc. So they come out with about €22. If they take a fisheries officer on board with them, that fisheries officer gets the full civil service overnight rate of about €147 tax free. So does a member of the Guard, if they are on board that ship. Where is the equity in that? Now, I mean, I've been harping on about the Defence Forces for the last seven years and I'm getting really tired of it. But we had an incredible meeting last Friday where the flag officer took the initiative to step back and let his people talk to us without any interference from commissioned officers, without any interference from the top. And what we heard, we heard pride amongst the men and women we spoke to. Pride in the service that they were charged with. But as one captain of a ship said to us sometime later in the day, as we go to sea, my crew at each rating have four different rates of pay because of allowances that were brought in. That simply is not equitable and cannot last. So I'm afraid we're looking at the death of the Defence Forces, the Navy, the Army and the Air Corps over the coming couple of years, two, three years at most before we won't have a Navy. We've got to do something quick and 35 million is not the answer. Thank you.