Alan O’Brien, Ger Reidy, Robert Stafford, and Ray Goggin say they would have stayed in the Army Ranger Wing if the pay was ‘half-decent’ Picture: Eddie O’Hare
It costs an estimated €1m and four years for the Defence Forces to train a soldier to become a member of the elite Army Ranger Wing.
Highly trained and skilled, they are hugely well-regarded by other special forces across the globe. It is a gruelling and dangerous career, which is why four former members of the Army Ranger Wing say they find it almost incomprehensible that they were so poorly paid for putting their lives on the line.
Ex-ranger Ger Reidy told the Irish Examiner that his wages while serving as a ranger were so bad, he was forced to rely on family income support to make ends meet. Being a member of the Army Ranger Wing “completely takes over your world and you need to be properly compensated for that,” says Mr Reidy.
We started to take pay cuts following the recession in 2008. We had three cuts. The cuts were so bad that I qualified for family income support.
"I said to myself, here I am in this elite unit and I’m on family income support.”
The ranger wing is by its nature a highly secretive force. Mr Reidy and three of his former comrades, Robert Stafford, Ray Goggins, and Alan O’Brien, have become well known for their appearances on TV’s Ultimate Hell Week, which puts civilians through a tough training regime similar to that which ranger recruits must undertake. But they haven’t voiced publicly before now their dissatisfaction with how poorly they were paid while risking life and limb.
The four ex-rangers are well known for appearances on ‘Ultimate Hell Week’ but until now have not gone public about how poorly they were paid while risking life and limb. Picture: Miki Barlok
The four men have a combined 92 years serving with the Defence Forces — 66 of these with the Army Ranger Wing. They undertook a combined 31 overseas missions with the military.
They say they are speaking out now because they want to ensure that those who are still serving are properly paid, and they are given the backdated allowances they deserve.
Reidy, Goggins, Stafford, and O’Brien told the Irish Examiner they would have stayed in the force “if the money was half decent” but they had to look after their families. After doing the sums, the four men discovered they would be better off with their pension and just doing one day’s work a week.
“You only have to work one day a week and have the pension to equal what we earned while in the ARW,” said Mr Stafford.
After Mr O’Brien left the Defence Forces he got a job in UCC with the School of Medicine, initially for one day a week, and then full time.
That day’s wage plus my pension from the Defence Forces actually equalled the wage I was earning in the rangers.
He, like his comrades, was forced to make the decision to leave when it got too tough financially to stay with the Army Ranger Wing.
“In the end I was actually having to pay to go to work,” he said, pointing out that Army Ranger Wing members are on one-hour standby to deploy, not just for real emergencies but also training purposes.
Mr Goggins says the reason those in the Army Ranger Wing didn’t get the pay they deserve is “because we didn’t kick up about it, that’s why”.
“They [the Government] have the money now [unlike in the recession] and they should pay [the serving members and the alleged allowances owed],” said Mr Stafford.
Army Ranger Wing members are on one-hour standby to deploy not just for real emergencies but also training purposes. Picture: Defence Forces
He was part of a PDForra negotiating team at the defence sector arbitration board which negotiated an increase in allowances paid to the Army Ranger Wing. Mr Stafford maintains a decision to backdate the allowance was made by the arbitrator.
The men say they are owed in the region of €30,000 each.
“There are guys still in service who were paid allowance increases from 2018 but got none backdated. Some of them are owed up to €60,000,” said Mr Stafford.
He said they are aware of a deceased Army Ranger Wing member whose family is also owed money.
The Irish Examiner understands that despite two letters to the Department of Justice on the allowances issue from the men’s legal representative, the Department of Defence has yet to reply.
The men are annoyed at how they have been treated, given their years of service to the State, and the expertise involved in the Army Ranger Wing.
The wing was established in March 1980, primarily to focus on counter-
terrorism measures. Around 90% of Defence Forces members who try and get into the ARW are rejected because the entry requirements to the elite unit are physically and mentally gruelling. The Army Ranger Wing is among the toughest and best trained of any special force in the world and highly respected by foreign counterparts.
It can be called upon to carry out surveillance on dissidents and drug cartels operating in this country and has been involved in in numerous peacekeeping and peace-enforcement operations around the world, including extremely dangerous missions in Somalia, East Timor, Liberia, Mali, and Chad.
Mr Stafford and Mr Goggins point to the events of August 2021 when politicians heaped praise on a nine-man ARW team which undertook a gruelling 40-hour mission to evacuate 26 Irish citizens from Kabul Airport as Taliban forces closed in to retake control of the country.
Last September the Army Ranger Wing stormed the MV Matthew off the Cork coast, firing warning shots as the unit ‘roped down’ from a helicopter onto the vessel, which had around €160m cocaine on board. Picture: Dan Linehan
On September 23 last year there was more praise for serving rangers after an ARW unit stormed the MV Matthew off the coast of Cork.
The unit received orders to board and detain the Panamanian-registered vessel which was found to have around €160m of cocaine onboard.
They fired warning shots as they ‘roped down’ onto the vessel from a helicopter and proceeded to quickly take control of the ship in a perfectly-executed mission that was hailed nationally and internationally.
“Politicians are happy to be associated with us when we are airlifting people out of Kabul and intercepting large drug shipments, but they do nothing for us,” Mr Stafford said.
In 2010 PDForra, the association which represents enlisted personnel in the Army Ranger Wing, undertook an adjudication for claims to have their allowances increased.
PDForra general secretary Gerard Guinan said that at that time, the adjudicator made a positive ruling in favour of the members of the unit and backdated a proposed increase to 2006.
Army Ranger Wing members carry out an assault on a building during a demonstration in the Curragh Camp. Picture: Eamonn Farrell/RollingNews.ie
However, shortly after the positive ruling was made, the Fempi legislation was passed, which put the claim for members of the unit in limbo until 2018.
“It is important to note that the Department of Defence and the minister never stated that they did not intend to pay and the minister with responsibility for defence, Paul Kehoe, said as much on Primetime in 2017,” Mr Guinan said.
The following year an offer was made to the representative association to implement a number of outstanding adjudications with effect from October 1, 2018, with no back pay. The offer tied in other cohorts of personnel who were entitled to lesser sums than those owed to the Army Ranger Wing.
Mr Guinan said PDForra fought the “all-or-nothing” nature of the offer made by the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform and managed to secure agreement that they could utilise the courts, or other available mechanism, to try and get restoration of the outstanding sums due to members of the elite unit.
Subsequently, PDForra launched High Court proceedings for two cohorts of its members, but was unable to do so for members of the Army Ranger Wing for technical reasons.
The association did, however, include these personnel in a complaint to the International Labour Organization in Geneva about the outstanding allowances not being paid.
“Currently, PDForra is aware that a number of former members of the elite unit have approached a solicitor regarding the element of back pay,” said Mr Guinan. “While PDForra cannot represent non-members [as they are retired], our association believes that it’s very unjust that these members who utilised the only industrial relations mechanism open to them at the time have been treated so badly.
“Our association firmly believes that for justice to be done, the Department of Defence needs to come forward and make some reparations for the years that these personnel spent working for sub-par rates of pay.
“The fact that the Department of Defence appears to not have responded to their legal representative is shocking and must be bitterly disappointing to the personnel concerned, especially given how much they sacrificed over the years,” he said.
In response, the Department of Defence released a statement to the Irish Examiner in which it said that an offer on allowance increases was made to both representative associations — PDForra, and RACO for officers — with effect from October 2018.
This was on “a non-retrospective basis” and both RACO and PDForra accepted this offer.
The department said it was accepted that the Army Ranger Wing allowance would be subject to a rolling three-year upward review, meaning a review was to take place in October 2021.
It pointed out that the defence sector arbitration board recommended that the Army Ranger Wing allowance be increased by €200 per month with effect from October 1, 2021, with an additional 5% increase to also apply from that date. This resulted in the Army Ranger Wing allowance increasing, with a backdated element due, at the time of implementation in 2023.
This provided Army Ranger Wing officers with an allowance increase from €216.48 to €279.07 per week.
Enlisted personnel who joined the Defence Forces Army Ranger Wing post-2013 saw a weekly rise from €225.62 to €288.15, while enlisted personnel who joined before 2013 got an increase from €214.34 to €276.30.
The department said these rates increased last October to €283.25 for
officers, €292.47 for personnel enlisted post-2013, and €280.44 for personnel enlisted pre-2013. Its statement said the allowance rates will again be reviewed this October.
In conclusion, the Department of Defence said it has “no comment in relation to litigation case potential or otherwise”.