Vol. 318 No. 4
asked the Minister for Defence if he has received the recommendations of a board set up to inquire into the following matters relating to the Army: (a) insurance schemes, (b) pensions, (c) welfare, and (d) housing, including the early payment of service gratuity.
6.
asked the Minister for Defence if he has received the recommendation of the board set up to examine conditions within the Army including insurance schemes, pension schemes, welfare, housing and the early payment of service gratuity, if the NCO's and men were consulted during this investigation and if it is intended to implement the findings of the board.
7.
asked the Minister for Defence the reason NCOs and men were not consulted in any way in connection with the inquiries made by the board set up to inquire into Army conditions.
8.
asked the Minister for Defence if he intends to implement the recommendations of the board set up to inquire into Army conditions.
With the permission of the Ceann Comhairle, I propose to take Questions Nos. 5 to 8, inclusive, together.
I understand that the board mentioned consisted of military officers and was set up to report to the Chief of Staff on the operation and development of private schemes involving insurance, savings and so on, for the welfare of members of the Defence Forces and families. The board were not concerned with military pensions and gratuities which are under the control of my Department.
I am informed by the military authorities that the main recommendations of the board have been or are about to be implemented and that military personnel of all ranks were consulted by the board.
Were the recommendations of the board published? Have all the recommendations been implemented? What is the current position?
The major recommendations of the board are being implemented. Some of them have been implemented and some of them are in the course of being implemented.
Were they published?
I am not aware that they were published because it was an internal Army matter. It did not directly concern the Department.
Would the Minister not agree that where a major board of this nature is established, concerning conditions of employment of Army personnel, and where the board were composed exclusively of officers, that it is in the public interest that this report should be published and made available or at least that it be tabled in the Houses of the Oireachtas?
I do not know that this was a major board in that sense. They were a board set up to consider a variety of matters which were of internal interest to the Army. As I said, the main recommendations of the board were or are about to be implemented. I do not see why we should lay this on the Table of the House. It included matters such as increased benefits in both officers and men's friendly societies, savings schemes, which have been commenced, a group assurance scheme for men, which will commence in the near future, and so on. It consisted of that type of thing and is an internal Army matter.
In a situation where there is no representative body comparable to that of the Garda Síochána available in the Irish Army and where there are 13,000 public servants involved it is quite a unique situation that a board composed of officers should meet to make various recommendations and that this report would still be regarded as being entirely internal and that in the general interest of an open democracy that report should be broadly available. Would the Minister consider it?
I am sure there are numerous boards of this type in a variety of Departments which are internal and which are not——
The Minister has very considerable experience of conciliation and arbitration schemes and he knows that these reports are generally available to the trade unions concerned. But in relation to the Army there is no trade union or representative body. The process of consultation is entirely internal and since this does not relate to a security matter does the Minister agree that such a basic thing should be available?
We cannot take up Question Time with long statements.
I have given the Deputy a full reply in relation to this.
I do not know what the Army has to hide.
Or is the Minister trying to hide something?
There is nothing to hide.
