Hear, hear.

That is the bottom line. Senator Craughwell never ceases to amaze me. He is a firm advocate of the Defence Forces and is nominated by one of the unions, which is his prerogative. There are issues in the Defence Forces being addressed by the Minister of State, Deputy Paul Kehoe. I realise Senator Craughwell is seeking election to other positions, and if he is successful he will have a key, pivotal role regarding our Defence Forces, as he knows well. I commend him on his service in the past. We have had many a fine discussion on that. The Minister of State, to his credit, has been a very fine Minister for Defence.

Giving out medals.

He has engaged in the reform of the Defence Forces.

Destruction.

He has introduced revised pay scales for general service recruits and privates. These initiatives have been implemented. Newly qualified three-star privates and their Naval Service equivalents will see an increase in their pay to €27,000, representing an increase of over €5,000.

The Minister of State has also announced a range of measures relating to contracts, promotions and the working time directive, aimed at further increasing the attractiveness of the Defence Forces as a career option, as the Senator knows well from his engagement with him. It was the Minister of State who got Cabinet approval for ongoing, evolving recruitment of naval and defence personnel.

Some 30% are walking out before-----

Further to that, bearing in mind that some Members of the House do not like to hear good news, there is additional funding of €25 million in budget 2018-----

-----and €98 million for capital projects, including major equipment that the Senator knows well is very important to the work of our Defence Forces.

This is grossly unfair because the Leader knows I cannot respond.

He did contribute and I did not interrupt him.

With all due respect, Senator Craughwell had three minutes of Independent group time and he commandeered four. He should let the Leader respond. He may raise the matter again in another way.