Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 24 November 2022
17. Deputy James Lawless asked the Minister for Defence if he will provide an update on Project R9 - Additional specialist posts for high turnover and long lead in appointments in the High Level Implementation plan Strengthening our Defence Forces. [58282/22]
View answer20. Deputy Seán Haughey asked the Minister for Defence the status of a Project A2 - Workforce Planning in the High Level Implementation plan Strengthening our Defence Forces. [58285/22]
View answerI propose to take Questions Nos. 17 and 20 together.
The Report of the Public Service Pay Commission (PSPC) on Recruitment and Retention in the Defence Forces was published on the 4th of July 2019. The Report was accepted in full by the Government at that time and an extensive High Level Implementation Plan (HLIP) titled "Strengthening our Defence Forces” was also agreed and published on the same date. A joint civil/military Project Management Office (PMO) was established to oversee the implementation of the fifteen (15) specific projects that made up the High Level Implementation Plan.
All projects undertaken to facilitate the implementation of the recommendations of the PSPC report have now been completed, and/or are being progressed as part of normal business. This includes the two specific projects that are the subject of the Deputies’ questions, Project A2: Embedding of Strategic Workforce Planning Practices in the PDF and Project R9, consideration of the provision of additional specialist posts in areas where there was high turnover or long training lead in times.
The Project Management Office (PMO) has been stood down. This was communicated by a civil/military team in a final briefing on the status of the HLIP projects on 11 April 2022, to which the representative organisations of the Permanent Defence Force were invited.
In February 2022, the Commission on the Defence Forces reported and its recommendations have been accepted by Government along with a High Level Action Plan for their implementation. A civil/military Implementation Management Office has been established to support the overall transformation programme required to implement these recommendations.
The initial focus is the progressing of the 38 early actions as set out in the High-Level Action Plan and the development of a detailed implementation plan for the remainder of the recommendations. Two of the pay-related recommendations in the report have already been implemented, namely, that all personnel of Private 3 Star/Able Seaman rank will be paid the full rate of Military Service Allowance (MSA) applicable to the rank, while at the same time, the requirement for that cohort to ‘mark time’ for the first three years at that rank will be removed. This has led to significant pay increases for those ranks, in addition to further increases arising from agreements in the wider public sector.
