Carol Nolan Demands Answers on UN Rotations and Defence Staffing

I want to begin by thanking your office for the constructive engagement that myself and my staff had in relation to the Lebanon mission and the soldiers on the UNIFIL mission returning home. I was contacted by many constituents who were left struggling with issues, everyday issues like childcare and work duties. And I felt that the decision made by the Secretary General of the UN to suspend the rotations was extremely unfair and it did have a negative impact on the families. But I do welcome now that the rotations have been put in place, the first being the 21st of this month, followed by the second on the 29th. But what I will stress to you is to ensure that it does happen, to ensure that all military personnel are returned home on those dates because it does cause a huge impact, a negative impact on families of the Defence Forces. So I just ask you to ensure that that happens. On a different matter, Minister, I was contacted last week by RACO and they are deeply concerned that the Defence Forces continues to reduce in strength and is now at an all-time low of 8,485 personnel. And I know that this issue has been raised with me many times by people involved in the Defence Forces and their families extremely concerned by this. I know that RACO have also called for the immediate and significant intervention in the form of retention initiatives to include improved remuneration and other non-pay measures. And according to RACO, the initial and modest pay commission recommendations have not stemmed the outflow, while the government plans strengthening our Defence Forces is being allowed to fail despite commitments to the contrary. And my first question is, Minister, have you received the submission from RACO and what actions will you be taking in order to address the legitimate and genuine concerns that they raise? I also want to note that RACO are severely critical of the recent report issued by the Parliamentary Budget Office on the Defence Forces. It has been claimed that the PBO report on recruitment, retention and remuneration only uses data up to 2017, relying on the Department of Defence and Department of Public Expenditure figures and trend analysis. According to RACO, however, the situation has become much worse in subsequent years. And vacancies have increased by a staggering 310%. These developments must be highlighted to provide accurate and complete advice on the Defence Forces to the Houses of the Oireachtas. Because this is an issue that has come up here time and time again. And it's very important that the correct figures and indeed the true reflection is conveyed. Are you aware of these claims around the inaccuracies in the Budget Office report, Minister? And I just want to say that normally I find our Parliamentary Budget Office to be exemplary. But this is a serious charge being levelled against it by RACO. And I think it does need to be addressed and indeed clarified. We cannot allow the impression to go out that the PBO is somehow deliberately misleading the House. And on a final matter, Minister, I want to highlight the incident where three Irish soldiers received minor injuries when an improvised explosive device exploded near their convoy in eastern Mali on Tuesday the 25th of February. As you are aware, Minister, there was serious concern last year when the decision was taken to send our troops to Mali. And many people raised particular concerns that such missions continue to erode any meaningful sense of neutrality that we have. The question I have on this is whether or not there continues to be any real value to the so-called triple lock guaranteeing our neutrality. The question I have on the PBO, that is a matter not for the Minister but for the House. And I assure you, we will investigate the matter. Absolutely, I just want it on the record. I welcome the fact that you have highlighted the superb work that the PBO has done. And I would think it highly unlikely and see no reason why the PBO would have any vested interest in misrepresenting any... Absolutely, it is clarity that is needed. We will take the matter off. Minister. Just on the PBO, I want to say, my 18 years here as a member of the Rocklis, I know that the Library and the Research Service and now the Parliamentary Budget Office are an absolutely great source of information. And whatever information was sought from my department, from the PBO, we handed it over. This is totally independent from government, totally independent from my department. I had absolutely no influence over whatsoever. Government had no influence over, nor did my department have any influence over. I'd like to thank Deputy Nolan for her comments regarding the staff in my office and the assistance that they gave to you. Yes, it was a very difficult time for family members. I spoke to a huge amount of family members that contacted me directly. But once I explained the situation to them, they fully understood that it was out of my control as to getting the personnel returning back from the UN. That this is a UN decision to delay all rotations until the 30th of June. Fortunately, we've been able to get them home earlier. Just on your issue there with RACO, officers at the moment are at 99% full capacity. They have an established strength is 1,233 and the current strength is 1,222. All right, Minister, we'll have to come back because we're way over time. Thank you. I just wanted one further comment on that. That there is 35 officers, former members of the Defence Forces and the Officer Corps, are expressions of interest to come back in. This is something that I really pushed and we have had quite a number of pilots, I think it's five pilots have re-enlisted already and more have shown interest as well of returning back into the organisation. We hope Deputy Barry isn't one of them.