The association representing members of the Defence Forces has said it remains “deeply concerned” about the Government’s overall approach to its members pay.

PDFORRA was speaking after the Government approved a €10m annual package aimed at improving take home pay for Ireland’s soldiers, sailors and aircrew.

The package was announced after the Public Services Pay Commission released its report on recruitment and retention issues in the Defence Forces.

As expected, the report recommended a range of allowance increases but no rise in core pay.

Core pay

In a statement this afternoon, PDFORRA General Secretary Gerard Guinan said the association would carry out a full review of the report before briefing its members.

“While some of the recommendations made by the Commission go some way towards meeting the terms of the submission made by our Association, in other instances they fall considerably short,” he said.

He said the association has consistently called for pay rates to be linked to working hours and said the change remained an urgent requirement.

“The cuts to allowances and the failure to recognise the working time of members of the Defence Forces as a resource has resulted in the early departure of thousands of good men and women who were simply forced to leave for economic reasons,” he said.

“The defence organisation will regrettably take a long time to recover from these losses.”

Allowances

The €10m package includes a 10% increase in the Military Service Allowance – which will see the vast majority of personnel receiving a pay rise.

Duty allowances for security and patrol detail are being restored – along with premium rates for weekend duties.

Meanwhile, recruits and apprentices will no longer be charged for rations and accommodation – resulting in a saving of nearly €45 per week.

Recruitment and retention

The Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe denied that the government had acted too slowly to prevent thousands of recruits from leaving the Defence Forces.

“We have to look at each issue in the context of commitments that we have with all public servants,” he said.

“It has taken time for the Public Pay Commission to do their work; to assemble the level of detail that they need to then make a recommendation to Government and we have now acted on that recommendation.”

The allowance increases are in addition to pay increases already due to Defence Forces members under the Public Sector Stability Agreement.

Minister Donohoe said the changes would deliver pay benefits of up between 6.2% and 7.4% to public service workers by the end of the agreement.