My first day in Leinster House was 25 years ago when I was a member of the Defence Forces security detail charged with protecting the campus. I admit to spending a little bit too much time in the Visitors Gallery looking down at proceedings. Little did I know how events would transpire and I would actually end up here today.

It is on that basis that I want to welcome the additional funding that has been announced this morning for our military. It is very important because it is desperately needed. I welcome the increased funding for infrastructure and capability development but, particularly, I want to welcome the increased funding for military pay for the people who are on the lowest pay grade in our Defence Forces. Those are the people who have less than three years’ service.

We all appreciate that our defence community has no access to the Workplace Relations Commission. It is denied access to the Labour Court and to any type of industrial action whatsoever. It is uniquely vulnerable from that perspective. Therefore, it is the Government’s job to intervene regularly to ensure a level playing field from a military perspective. To be fair to the Opposition as well, it is also the Opposition’s role. I want to put on record my gratitude to all Members of the House from all sides, both Government and Opposition benches, who have campaigned so passionately over this issue for the past number of years.

It is good to see at least a moderate increase and improvement announced this morning. Is the plan perfect? Of course not. However, is it progress? Yes, for sure. It builds on progress that has already occurred this year, particularly allowing reservists to travel overseas and for PDFORRA and Representative Association of Commissioned Officers, RACO, to associate with Irish Congress of Trade Unions, ICTU.

How will we know if the plan is working? There is only one metric that matters and that is headcount. The strength of our military is the lowest it has been for 50 years right now at fewer than 8,300 people. It has not been this low in half a century and we need to get that number up. There has been a net loss of 203 people already in the first five months of this year. That is ten people a week. That is not turnover; that is attrition. No organisation can put up with that level of attrition.

The focus now needs to shift on three other allowances. First, the specialised instructors allowance was taken away as result of the financial emergency measures in the public interest, FEMPI, cuts that have yet to be returned. Also, the military service allowance needs to be done, but also the patrol duty allowance. Because it is in his constituency, the Taoiseach would be aware that there is a major problem with the Naval Service at the moment. We get many calls from Cork, which I am very happy to take of course. Strictly speaking, they may not be my constituents, but they certainly are my people.

Does the Taoiseach accept that there are unique industrial relations circumstances in our armed forces as part of our military community? As a result, it requires regular, direct intervention by the Cabinet to ensure there is a level playing field for our troops and their very important families.

I thank the Deputy for raising this very important issue. It is fair to say that since he was elected, he has been a very strong advocate for the Defence Forces. He has been advocating on its behalf to many Members in this House, including Members of Government. His advocacy has been consistent and genuine, obviously, given his own experience. I did not realise the vicarious influence, if I may say, of just being here looking after us many years ago had and the clear impact in ending up as a Member of the House through spending that time in the Gallery. The Deputy must have been attracted to what was going on to make him want to become a participant.

Today at the Cabinet meeting, the Minister for Defence, Deputy Coveney, brought forward a memorandum. We met with the commission on a number of occasions. I have met with the commission and the commission chair. It is a high level action plan. It will entail multi-annual funding increases, commencing in 2023, to reach a defence budget of €1.5 billion by 2028. It will involve - the Deputy was correct when he said this is a key metric - increasing the number of personnel, which will be an enormous challenge, by nearly 2,000 over the current establishment figure of 9,500.

The other key aspect of this is that there is an urgent need for human resources change and a cultural transformation of our Defence Forces. When I spoke to the chairperson, he was adamant about that. There are many practices that need dramatic transformation. It will take time. That is as important a part of the commission's recommendations as the ambition to go to a higher level of provision and defence capability. The report says we should go to level 2, as outlined in the report. I do not think we have any choice but to do that in terms of the level of ambition. It is a realistic level of ambition that we can get to. When we get to that level of ambition, we can review. We need radar systems and we need to have a greater understanding of the risks and so on, given our maritime size, and also in terms of how that relates to our naval strength and what is going on in the air around Ireland and so on. These are all issues on which we need to be stronger in terms of capability, intelligence and understanding.

In terms of the pay structures, there is a recommendation to provide immediate access to the seagoing service commitment scheme to direct-entry personnel in the Naval Service. We will follow through on the removal of the requirement for a private, three-star, or able seaman to mark time for the first three years at that rank. The payment of the full rate of military service allowance applicable to the rank of all private, three star, or able seamen personnel, replacement of the existing seagoing allowances with less complex seagoing duty measures and introduction of long-service increments to the pay scales of all ranks are all recommendations that have been made on the personnel front. It is something we are going to pursue. The Government will be keeping a hands-on approach through the Department and I, as Taoiseach, will be following through in terms of implementation with the Minister for Defence, Deputy Coveney.

I thank the Taoiseach for his response. There is a supplementary matter I wish to raise, relating to the €1,000 pandemic bonus payment. Not a single member of the Defence Forces has been paid the bonus yet, even though hundreds of them are eligible, entitled to it and have been told it is coming. It still has not arrived, however. We have heard that, rightly, 75,000 people in the HSE have been paid the bonus. That is fantastic and I say "Well done" to the HSE for paying its own staff, but there are members of other organisations that looked after contact tracing, testing and vaccination who are eligible for this allowance yet still have not been paid. Not only has it not been paid, no member of the Defence Forces has applied for it because there is no mechanism in place to so do. I would be grateful if the Taoiseach were to take that up with his relevant line Ministers to see if he can ensure prompt payment for our troops.

I acknowledge that members of the Defence Forces played a crucial role in our testing, tracing and vaccination programmes. In recognition of their input and unique role during the pandemic, the Government announced that they would benefit from the Covid-19 recognition payment along with other front-line workers. It is disappointing that this payment has not yet been made to members of the Defence Forces. The HSE is managing the payments to all recipients of the payment. Some 90,000 healthcare workers have already received it. The Department of Health is due to meet formally with the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform shortly to review this and see how we can accelerate payments to those who have yet to receive them.