Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 14 July 2011
253 Deputy Shane Ross asked the Minister for Defence the amount of State funding directly or indirectly that has been paid to fund trade unions, related bodies or trade union interests or causes in the past decade; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [21125/11]
View answerDetails of assistance provided by my Department to the public service unions and military representative associations are as follows. In accordance with Partnership arrangements, from February 2001 to February 2002 and from February 2003 to July 2006 my Department bore the salary costs for one member of staff seconded to the Civil and Public Services Union on a non-recoupment basis. These salary costs totalled approximately €100,000 for the duration of the secondment. Since 2006, the salary costs of staff on secondment have been recouped from the Union.
With regard to the military representative associations, in accordance with Agreed Arrangements under the Conciliation and Arbitration Scheme my Department provides the Representative Association of Commissioned Officers (RACO) with serviced office accommodation without charge and access to the Department's telephone network without charge. The Permanent Defence Force Other Ranks Representative Association (PDFORRA) receives an annual subvention of €68,568.
In addition to the above payments, personnel are seconded to RACO and PDFORRA on a non-recoupment basis. Currently there are two officers seconded to RACO and three enlisted personnel to PDFORRA. During the past decade, there was an additional officer seconded to RACO up to 31 January, 2009 and an additional enlisted person seconded to PDFORRA up to 31 October 2008. The Reserve Defence Forces Representative Association (RDFRA) is provided with office accommodation and receives an annual subvention of €52,694.31.
