I wish to raise the Public Service Pay Commission report on pay and recruitment issues for the Defence Forces. It is unfortunate that consideration of the matter has been postponed due to the absence of the Taoiseach. I do not propose to rehearse the issues at play but I note that the last time these matters were debated last month the leaking of proposals to the media in advance of consultation with the Permanent Defence Force Other Ranks Representative Association and the Representative Association of Commissioned Officers, the representative bodies of the Defence Forces, caused some angst. Judging by the coverage in the media again today, it seems the lessons have not been learned from that episode. Why have proposals again been leaked prior to consultation taking place with soldiers and their representative bodies? Will meaningful consultation with them take place as soon as possible directly and not through the media?

It is a bit premature for me to comment on how this will be dealt with as the issues have yet to be considered at Cabinet. It is likely that the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputy Donohoe, will bring a report to Cabinet this week and the Government will make its strategy clear at that point.

I am concerned that we are going to run out of time to have any meaningful discussion in this House on a matter of real concern, namely, the demoralisation in our Defence Forces. Members of the Defence Forces are totally demoralised by the lack of respect they have been shown by the Government. This peer review, which has been promised for six or eight months now and is to be published in the dying days of this Dáil term, if at all, is adding to that sense of alienation. Why did the terms of the review focus only on allowances and not on core pay when core pay is the kernel of the grievances of our serving men and women?

It is my understanding that the issue of core pay was negotiated across the public service.

As the Minister knows, the Defence Forces were not represented at those negotiations.

Arrangements were put in place in that agreement for increases in pay ranging from 6.2% to 7.4% over the lifetime of the agreement. That agreement made provision for looking at specific areas, such as difficulty of recruitment and so on. It is under that clause, not a reopening of the pay settlement as a whole, that these specific concerns of the Defence Forces have been examined. That is why the matter has been dealt with in this way.

Why are we waiting so long for the report?