I propose to take Questions Nos. 91, to 94, inclusive, and Questions Nos. 96 and 97 together.
At its meeting held on the 4th July 2019, the Government accepted, in full, the report of the Public Service Pay Commission on recruitment and retention in the Permanent Defence Force. The report contains a broad range of recommendations to deal with recruitment and retention challenges in the Permanent Defence Force.
The Government also agreed an extensive implementation plan for the report. The plan sets out the actions to be taken and the timelines within which they will be taken.
The report of the Public Service Pay Commission is being considered by the Permanent Defence Force Representative Associations.
The Defence Sector arrangements in the Public Service Agreement 2010-2014 (the Croke Park Agreement) contained a commitment to review technical pay in the Defence Forces. A review of technical pay Grade 1 was conducted in 2014 and came into effect on 1 Jan 2015.
A review of the technical pay Grades 2 - 6 ,is being progressed and the timelines for implementation are contained in the Plan to implement the Report of the Public Service Pay Commission on recruitment and retention issues in the Permanent Defence Force.
Security Duty Allowance (SDA) is an additional duty based allowance paid on top of basic pay, military service allowance and any other allowances individual members of the Permanent Defence Force may be in receipt of. In this regard, SDA should not be viewed in isolation when calculating hourly rates of remuneration.