I propose to take Questions Nos. 16 and 23 together.
In the context of the White Paper on Defence, the Government decided that an updated Defence Forces personnel management plan would be prepared setting down policies and goals to ensure personnel policies and practices keep pace with current best practice to the benefit of the new organisation being created on foot of the white paper.
In line with this requirement, a draft integrated personnel management system, IPMS, has been prepared by the military authorities and is now being considered by my Department's civil-military strategic management committee. The new career development plan will be encompassed by the IPMS. When the strategic management committee has completed its deliberations, I expect a further draft of the IPMS will be submitted to me for consideration.
Before any final decisions are made, it is my intention that the Permanent Defence Force Other Ranks Representative Association, PDFORRA, and the Representative Association of Commissioned Officers, RACO, will be consulted in a spirit of partnership in accordance with the system of representation.
The requirements which the IPMS must meet are set out in section 4.5 of the White Paper. In simple terms, the IPMS will deal with the broad range of personnel and human resource management and development issues. These include manpower policy and planning, equality of opportunity and treatment and the right to dignity at work, recruitment, terms of enlistment, induction, training education and development, physical and medical fitness, career guidance and management and development, promotion, the regulatory framework, retirement and pensions. From the range of issues I have outlined, it will be clear to the Deputy and the House that the IPMS is a major undertaking. We are trying to strike a balance between the needs of the organisation and the needs of the people in it.
I hope we will have a set of finalised proposals to put to the representative associations by the end of the year. The pace of implementation will then depend on how quickly we can complete the consultation process.