Defence Forces legislation and conditions
Seán Ó Fearghaíl asks when three Defence Department Bills will proceed and whether they will address reports of poverty and hardship among Defence Forces personnel. The Taoiseach refers to forthcoming Government consideration of outstanding reports.
There are three Bills emanating from the Department of Defence which appear on the B and C lists of the legislative programme - namely, Nos. 36, 66 and 67. When will the Bills be brought before the House? Will any of them address the very serious concerns expressed at the PDFORRA conference in the last 24 hours? We are now hearing reports that 20% of members of the Defence Forces are living in poverty and in receipt of family income supplement, and that five members of the Defence Forces are sleeping in their cars as a consequence of the reorganisation inflicted on the Defence Forces by the former Minister, Deputy Alan Shatter.
I welcome the fact that tomorrow we will debate the report of the Constitutional Convention on blasphemy. However, this leaves quite a number of reports outstanding. The Taoiseach has had to accept in the past that he set a number of deadlines in respect of the convention and the manner in which its reports would be dealt with. None of those deadlines has been met in so far as the Government is concerned. Can the Taoiseach assure the House that the outstanding reports will now be prioritised?
Comment on this
I confirm, with regard to the last question, that a memorandum will be brought to the Government by me next week to deal with the outstanding reports which have not been debated in the House. The Government agreed yesterday in respect of the proposition that there be a referendum to deal with blasphemy, but I am making it clear that while the Government accepted the principle, it is not setting a date. A number of referendums have been proposed here, and that debate can take place tomorrow or today in relation to that aspect of it. The remaining convention reports will be the subject of the memorandum next week, and I will advise the Deputy in that regard.
There are seven heads in the defence (amendment) Bill, which will not be published until 2015. The Defence (Amendment) Act 2011 was enacted in July 2011. In respect of the defence (amendment) (discipline) Bill, approval will be sought for the heads on other matters having regard to recent developments in military law. I cannot give the Deputy an indication of when that process will be concluded.
I heard the report from PDFORRA about the difficulties members are having and of a small number reportedly having to sleep in their cars. This is a matter the Minister for Defence will obviously take seriously and look into.