Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 11 July 2017
31. Deputy Mick Barry asked the Taoiseach and Minister for Defence if members of the Defence Forces who have not been permitted to take their full annual leave allowance in recent years can be fully compensated for this loss. [32344/17]
View answerIn recent years, many members of the Defence Forces have not been permitted to take their full annual leave allowance. Does the Minister of State intend to fully compensate them for those losses?
Depending on rank, the annual leave entitlement for officers varies from 31 to 43 days and for non-commissioned officers and privates from 28 to 30 days. Non-commissioned officers or privates filling appointments as instrumentalists in the establishments of the Defence Forces School of Music may be granted 31 days annual leave and members of the Naval Service serving afloat may be granted annual leave of 43 days. Members of the Defence Forces are entitled also to public holidays and to three specific military holidays.
In addition, a wide variety of special leave is available to Defence Forces personnel, such as mission leave when deployed abroad, special leave on return home, certain NCOs and privates qualify for special leave on extension of service and on termination of service subject to various requirements. Certain officers may be granted special leave prior to retirement.
Defence Forces regulation, DFR, A11 governs the granting of leave, other than sick leave, in the Permanent Defence Force. As part of normal personnel management, the granting of annual leave is a balance between the entitlement of the individual to annual leave and the requirement to ensure continuity of a public service. Paragraph 16 of DFR A11 provides for the carrying forward of annual leave not granted or availed of in the leave year concerned. This can be of benefit both to the individual and the organisation. Officers may be allowed to carry forward a maximum of 24 days, non-commissioned officers and privates in the Army and Air Corps may carry forward a maximum of 19 days and non-commissioned officers and ordinary or able seamen of the Naval Service may carry forward a maximum of 24 days.
The request to increase the number of carry-over days has been considered. The current carry-over has been found to be proportionate and reasonable.
I have been advised by my officials that three plenary summonses have been taken by members of the Defence Forces in respect of the transposition of the working time directive and the carry-over of annual leave. Given that these matters are before the courts, it would be inappropriate to comment further on the legal proceedings which have been commenced in connection with this matter.
I submitted a question last year and it took an age for me to receive a response. That response finally arrived in January. I inquired as to how many days over the course of recent years have been surrendered to the State on foot of paragraph 16 of the DFR A11, which limits an annual carry-over to 19 days, regardless of whether members of the Defence Forces can actually avail of their leave entitlement due to tours of duty, leave cancellation and post-tour rest and recuperation. The fact is that in 2015 - the only year for which the Department has so far come back to me with figures - the level of annual leave entitlements denied to Defence Forces personnel came to a wage equivalent to €30 million. I do not see much balance there.
Yesterday, an article in the Irish Examiner on the University of Limerick report referred to poor pay, lack of expertise and exhaustion. Clearly, the denial of the request to roll over annual leave, which the previous reply disgracefully described as "privilege" is a contributory factor. The Minister of State will be discussing the issue with PDFORRA and RACO on Thursday. What will he say to them on this and other issues?
I am not sure whether the Deputy is aware that PDFORRA brought a claim within the provisions of the conciliation and arbitration scheme. Discussions within the scheme are confidential. In addition, the matter is now subject to legal proceedings. It would be totally inappropriate for me to comment on these cases. However, as the Deputy will be aware, it remains open to PDFORRA, under the terms of the scheme, to record its disagreement at council and to refer the matter for independent adjudication.
As I have stated, three individuals have taken separate cases. There is a number of reasons that people might be unable to take leave. To give a practical example, if an individual is selected for an overseas mission deploying in May, her or she may not be in a position to take annual leave for nine months of that year. He or she will commence pre-deployment training in March, deploy in May, return in November and then avail of post-deployment special leave of 30 days, which is in addition to the three weeks' mission leave. The only time available to him or her to take annual leave would be in January, February or December. This is mitigated, however, by the provision to carry over 19 days' leave in these circumstances, as I stated earlier.
The fact that PDFORRA has been forced to embark on the legal proceedings to which the Minister of State refers is a scandal. There should be a settlement forthwith. Speaking of exploitation in the Defence Forces, the report to which I referred yesterday described the privates' quarters in Rathmines barracks as "Hotel Rwanda", with no hot water, broken urinals, and walls encrusted in damp. I welcome the fact that after ten years of campaigning and pressure, the Department has been forced to make changes. On "Drive Time" yesterday, however, the Minister of State suggested that anyone who joins the Irish Defence Forces does not feel they are going to get "five star". The men and women of the Defence Forces do not expect to be keeping up with the Kardashians. They do not expect five star treatment and never asked for it. They do expect accommodation which has hot water and proper toilets. I suggest that the Minister of State might cut down a bit on the glib throwaway remarks and put his energy instead into tackling scandals like this, which continue to flourish on his watch.
I am glad the Deputy was listening to me on "Drive Time" yesterday evening. He omitted to say that I doubled the budget last year for investment in barracks and specifically in areas of accommodation. I am very disappointed that he only heard what suited him and his negative talk about the Defence Forces of the last months. Not one member of the Defence Forces has ever come to me and raised accommodation or said they had no hot water or broken urinals or anything like that. I mix with these people on a weekly and monthly basis.
Is the Minister of State saying that there was hot water?
If the Deputy listens to me maybe------
The Minister of State did not wash his hands.
Not one of them ever approached me to say there was no hot water or broken urinals or damp on the walls or any of that. If they have an issue with their accommodation, they are welcome to address it to me. I am open and transparent and have no issue whatsoever.
It took ten years.
I am in this position for the past 12 months. I doubled the budget in that time. I do not think that is bad going.
