Senator Gerard Craughwell- speech from 14 Sep 2022

As a member of the Royal British Legion, former member of the Royal Irish Rangers, and a colleague of the many who served Her Majesty's forces who now live in the Republic of Ireland, I would like to express my sympathies on their behalf. Her Majesty, when she visited Ireland, in very few short words, won the entire hearts of the nation of Ireland, and she is indeed a sad loss. I would ask also that government might consider allowing employees to take some time when the funeral of Her Majesty takes place. It may be something odd to say, but our country has grown quite a lot in recent years, and I think it would be a decent and honourable thing to do. Cahirleach, Leader, many times in this House I have spoken on search and rescue, and I am not going to go into the detail of it today. But facts were released in recent days through the Sunday Business Post. I have had two private member sessions here in this House, and on both occasions the Minister did not do the courtesy of answering the questions I asked. There is now clearly a prima facie case for a conflict of interest in the establishment of the business case for our next search and rescue. People of Ireland are entitled to know why we are going to be paying somewhere between £1 billion and £1.5 billion for a contract for five helicopters in four bases, while our brothers and sisters in the United Kingdom are getting 18 helicopters in 12 bases for £1.6 billion. So I am asking for time to have the Minister in here, the Senior Minister in here, to discuss this matter and let us see where we are going with it. Finally, Cahirleach, you are aware of the fact today that the report on our Secretarial Assistance claim came out today. Quite frankly, it is a good deal for those who have just joined the service. But for those who have served us for many, many years, it is a terrible deal, an absolutely terrible deal. There is about €800 a year at best in it before tax for Senior Secretarial Assistance. Now, the author of this report, Cahirleach, and I know you sit on the Commission, the author of this report clearly failed to understand the job of Shanna Derden, and in particular those who work for us within Shanna Derden. And I would ask you, Cahirleach, particularly, to ask that we go back to the drawing board on this. I think it is an appalling misunderstanding of the work. I know your own SA puts in a massive amount of work, keeping all of us informed all of the time. And I really think we need to respect those who work for us an awful lot better. Giving new entrants a massive increase is great, but it should have ricocheted up the line fully. And I know the woman who works for me is often down in my office at 9 and 10 o'clock at night finalising things for the following day. And I would ask all my colleagues to join with me on this and to support those who support us because we couldn't do the job we do without these people. They are not secretaries. They are not administrators. They are researchers. They are support people. I could not operate without Jean in my office. I just couldn't. And I think all of the rest of us are the same. So, Cahirleach, I would ask you to bring that to the committee. And I would ask, Lidha, maybe you'd write a letter to the commission to that effect. Thank you. Commission. Commission.