Defence Forces' group calls for increase in funding

The Government must increase funding to the Defence Forces if Ireland is to meet its growing international peacekeeping obligations, the forces' staff representative association, Pdforra, has said.

Troop numbers were falling at a time when overseas commitments were growing, Simon Devereux, Pdforra deputy general secretary, said yesterday.

"Despite a growing economy and an increasing workload for the Defence Force, the funding of the Defence Forces has not grown at a similar level."

Speaking on the first day of the Pdforra annual conference in Waterford, Mr Devereux said that while the forces' agreed strength of 10,750 had been lowered to 10,500, there seemed to be "some notion" that extra commitments could be met with less personnel.

"We still spend less on defence than any other defence force in the EU. This just does not make sense - as we have ongoing commitments at home, we have a long-standing commitment to UN - and we are now committed to EU battlegroups and all that this entails."

The organisation intends to raise the issue with Minister for Defence Willie O'Dea when he addresses the conference today.

Pdforra general secretary Gerry Rooney said such emerging problems were "reasonable issues" and that the organisation was prepared to discuss them in a reasonable manner.

He added that Mr O'Dea's recent intervention following a report on low morale in the Naval Service had been welcome and constructive.

The report, A Voyage of Discovery, found that personnel were spending excessive amounts of time working at sea and this was having an adverse effect on their family lives.

"At our recent meeting with the Minister, he assured us that discussions would now commence on finding a solution to the many issues raised in A Voyage of Discovery," Mr Rooney said.

The extra time spent patrolling at sea contravened agreements made in the White Paper on defence, he said.

"It's simply not acceptable to agree clear lines of commitment in a defence White Paper and then have local management totally ignore such important guidelines."