Why did the Department of Defence oppose the military service allowance for the 96th cadet class, which was involved in the HSE contact tracing programme? It is only through arbitration and an adjudicator ruling that the cadets were awarded €800, as was strongly endorsed by the general staff of the Defence Forces. These cadets were employed in the same way as fully trained personnel while on these vital Covid duties and the same cadets are some of the lowest paid members of the Defence Forces. What possible justification could there have been to oppose this allowance during a pandemic, when these cadets carried out extraordinary additional duties and their cadetships were suspended?

I do not know for sure. I think I recollect that an issue arose because others who were redeployed into contact tracing from other parts of the public service were not getting an additional allowance. As is so often the case when it comes to public sector pay issues, while a case may be justified on the face of things it triggers a set of knock-on claims which then make it unaffordable. That might be the reason but I might be wrong so I will ask the Minister for Defence, Deputy Coveney, to come back to the Deputy directly on that issue. I wish to record my appreciation, and that of the House, for the role the Defence Forces have played in helping us fight this pandemic, whether in contact tracing or, now, as the liaison officers for mandatory hotel quarantine.