Joe O'Reilly backs pay rises and reserve investment for Defence Forces

At the outset, can I welcome Minister for Marine, Minister Dooley. Good to have you here for this important debate. Can I say that it was good to have Minister McEntee earlier, and she's clearly very hands-on and proactive. And I want to say that her visibility as Minister for Defence should prove an incentive to young women and women in general to join the Defence Forces. And that would be big. And I think that can be a good by-product of our ministry, among other things. I want to support the motion, as very competently proposed by Senator Wilson and Gallagher. And on behalf of the Fianna Fáil, I agree with the broad trust of the motion and support it. I want at the outset, before, and I will be alluding more to this later, but I want at the outset to congratulate a very good friend of mine who's now Commandant Mark Kiernan in the Reserve Defence Forces. His office are now in command of C Company, the 27th Infantry Division. It's a huge personal achievement for him and a recognition of his leadership skills, etc. But it's also important for the Reserve Defence Forces in our region, and the region served by myself and Senator Wilson. And we hope that, as a consequence, and indeed Senator Tolley, of course, that as a consequence of his representation or his leadership there, that there will even be more recruitment in that district to the Reserve Defence Forces. Now, to turn to the motion, the first thing, clearly, as I said, now, currently, recruitment is positive due to an increase in pay and an increase in pay allowances and also medical support, medical insurance. And that's all to be welcomed. So, that improvement is to be welcomed. Is that mine? I'm not sure. I think it's gone if it is, I hope. But a medical support. So, that is important. The improvement in recruitment is important. And as the motion states, part of the reason for that is the payment of recruits on completion of training of 41,880 in year one and a 51% increase since 2019. That's to be welcomed. The payment of good debts on commissioning is now 45,795. And again, so the pay and conditions are an element in the more favourable, a very important element in the more favourable recruitment. I also think the general status and respect for our army, as it should be, the army have served us well down the years and have served us well abroad and at home. But I think the respect for the army, the respect for the Defence Forces and the position of the Defence Forces is improving in the public consciousness. And that's important too. And I think that is an element in the recruitment. But I'm happy that those developments have come forward. Now, the motion obviously sees more need for further development. We need to give extra pay for non-commissioned officers and senior non-commissioned officers to achieve retention. To achieve retention we need to improve their pay and conditions. And methods of doing that could be signing on bonuses or long service increments also, which I understand is a subject of discussion at the moment. But there is a merit. I understand from my conversation, I have the privilege with others here in the House, notably Senator Crockwell, of representing the Defence Forces in the Shannon. I've been their nominee. And from talking to them, I understand there is progress in this area, or tentative progress, but we need to see that happen in a big way. So we do need to go on improving pay and conditions, obviously. And as was alluded to earlier, living conditions are important. The motion establishes that we need the pension, and to evaluate the pension services, the Single Scheme and Other Provisions Act 2012 with regard to impact on retention of the Defence Forces. There's a disparity in pension entitlements for personnel who enlisted post-1994 and pre-2024, and that disparity needs addressing. And I hope that that can be the case. So we need to get the commencement of adjustments to pay and allowances as agreed under the local bargaining arrangement of the Public Service Pay Agreement 2024-26. So we need that enacted and happening. And this will all continue and enhance recruitment opportunities and continued recruitment. As I said at the outset, the current recruitment is positive, and it is due to increases in pay and allowances, conditions and medical cover. But we need to give extra pay, as I said, to NCOs and senior NCOs for retention purposes, and that this could be done by bonuses and by the long increments. So hopefully, we also need to... That will happen. And we also need to look closer at medical derogations to help to keep members, maybe to apply a bit more common sense in all of that area. Before I leave, and I did mention our neighbour and friend Comet and Ciernan's success within the Reserve Defence Forces, but I would say before, just in conclusion, government needs to focus more on the Reserve Defence Forces to invest more in it. Recruitment is improving, but more needs to be done there. And I would just say it's so important for civic spirit, and they should have a pathway into the permanent Defence Forces more readily. So, I think it's a great motion today, and it's an important discussion, one that we need to keep going. And tragically, it becomes all the more important in the geopolitical context. Thanks, thank you very much. From Margaret The Channel Door. Initial.