Simon Harris said he had met with his senior leadership team on Monday 'for a very detailed and frank discussion about how we can do more' to address these issues, as personnel are the Defence Forces' most vital asset. Picture Colin Keegan/ Collins
Simon Harris has said he is prepared to do whatever it takes to improve retention and recruitment in the country’s military, but admitted achieving ‘Level Of Ambition 3’ for enhanced equipment like fighter jets would be “a mammoth challenge".
The Tánaiste and minister for defence told PDForra’s annual conference that addressing recruitment and retention was one of his “most important priorities”.
He said he had met with his senior leadership team on Monday “for a very detailed and frank discussion about how we can do more” to address these issues, as personnel are the Defence Forces' most vital asset.
“I want to ensure our existing recruitment and retention frameworks are fully optimised and effective. Rest assured, where changes are needed, they'll happen. And where new initiatives are required, they'll be introduced,” he said.
The Government hopes to achieve Level Of Ambition 3 by 2040. This would provide the naval service with 12 ships, the air corps with fighter jets and the army with significant mechanised components.
“I want to be frank with you,” he told the conference. “Achieving LOA3 is a mammoth challenge. It will require Government to step up and show we are serious in relation to increasing our defence spending. In my view as Tánaiste, displaying that level of seriousness should not be seen as an option — it's a necessity."
The Defence Forces are moving towards LOA2, which Mr Harris described as “a Scandinavian model". He said there was a record
amount of money in this year's defence budget but acknowledged previous investment had been at “a low base".
He said he was planning to seek Cabinet approval to extend Irish peacekeeping operations in South Lebanon for another 12 months, and the Government would do everything it could to help ensure those behind the killing there of Private Seán Rooney were brought to justice.
“The delays in this case are not acceptable. The Rooney family deserve answers, they deserve accountability,” Mr Harris said.
PDForra general secretary Gerard Guinan told Mr Harris while there had been strides in recent years to provide the country’s military with better pay and conditions, still more needed to be done on those fronts.
“What is needed is a root-and-branch review of basic pay and duty money, which was a recommendation from the Commission on the Defence Forces and needs to be undertaken.
Your own party, Tánaiste, after meeting with our president, the vice-president and I, included this aspect in the Fine Gael manifesto, which was welcome. However, we regrettably noticed this did not make it into the programme for government,” Mr Guinan said.
He also reminded Mr Harris that when speaking to members of the Fine Gael party earlier this year “they clearly understood the disparity of treatment of Defence Force members relative to other areas of the public and civil service who receive overtime payments.”
Mr Guinan said under the current payments regime, soldiers, sailors and aircrew were being shortchanged by not having a premium attached to work outside normal duty hours.
“The basis for our contentions is well-founded in our complaint under Articles of the European Social Charter. Presently, PDForra is investigating the potential that significant sums may be payable to members for failure to provide a premium to personnel for public holidays,” Mr Guinan said.