Dáil Éireann debate -
Wednesday, 28 Jan 1998

Vol. 486 No. 1

Written Answers. - Defence Forces Overseas Missions.

Breeda Moynihan-Cronin

Question:

375 Mrs. B. Moynihan-Cronin asked the Minister for Defence the allowances payable to civil servants and members of the Defence Forces who are engaged in overseas duties; when these were last revised; and the total cost of these allowances for each of the years from 1995 to date in 1998. [1328/98]

Minister for Defence (Mr. M. Smith):

Department of Defence civil servants and members of the Permanent Defence Force serve with a number of different missions abroad and different arrangements exist between missions in relation to the allowances payable.

Personnel serving with peace-keeping, peace-enforcing or military observer missions overseas receive a daily "overseas" allowance in respect of service with such missions. Where personnel serving with peace-keeping, peace-enforcing or observer missions overseas are required to provide themselves with accommodation and meals and bear other associated costs such as local transport costs, laundry costs, for the duration of the tour of duty, a mission subsistence allowance is also payable. In certain missions other than the foregoing, where personnel incur all costs associated with service abroad, a cost of living-foreign service allowance, accommodation-rent allowance, detention allowance, disturbance allowance and children's allowance may be payable as appropriate.

Apart from a revision in 1995 of the accommodation-rent allowance payable in respect of service in New York, there has been no revision of the allowances payable to civil sevants serving abroad. In so far as members of the Permanent Defence Force are concerned, under the Defence (Amendment) Act, 1990, matters relating to pay and allowances, including allowances payable to members serving overseas, come within the scope of representation of the Representative Association of Commissioned Officers (RACO) and the Permanent Defence Force Other Ranks Representative Association (PDFORRA). It is open to the associations at any time to present a claim for a review of allowances which may be processed through the Conciliation and Arbitration Scheme for the Permanent Defence Force which was established in agreement with the associations.

The rates of overseas allowance payable to military personnel serving with United Nations Forces in Lebanon (UNIFIL) and Cyprus (UNFICYP) were last reviewed by the Commission on Remuneration and Conditions of Service in the Defence Forces in 1990. The rates of overseas allowance payable to military personnel serving with various observer missions were last reviewed in the context of the agreements reached with the representative associations under theProgramme for Competitiveness and Work.

I would like to add, however, that the rates of daily overseas allowance payable to personnel serving with peace-keeping, peace-enforcing or military observer missions overseas attract increases in line with general round increases in pay and allowances. The rates of subsistence type allowances may be revised from time to time, e.g. in the light of currency-cost of living changes.

The cost of these allowances in respect of the years from 1995 to 1998 is as follows:

	Civil Servants	Members of the Permanent Defence Force
	£	£
1995	26,500	7,501,611
1996	62,867	8,488,797
1997	99,983	8,126,174
1998 to date	7,800	figures not available.