Coveney tells defence forces members €1,000 bonus to be paid by Christmas

MEMBERS of the defence forces are set to get the €1,000 special Covid pandemic bonus before Christmas.

Defence Minister Simon Coveney told the Representative Association of Commissioned Officers (Raco) annual delegate conference in Naas, Co Kildare, that he is “personally frustrated” that it hasn’t happened before now.

He said his department was working with management to ensure first payments would be made on December 14.

HSE staff and workers in State-funded bodies have received the payment, but non-HSE public servants and private sector staff who worked on the frontline are still waiting.

Mr Coveney said the identification of the duties members carried out during the pandemic had concluded.

“Delegates, as you will be aware, earlier this year, the Government announced a Covid-19 recognition payment for frontline public sector healthcare workers, to recognise their unique role during the pandemic,” he said.

“I can assure you that every effort is being made to ensure that pandemic recognition payments are made to eligible defence forces members in the shortest possible time frame.”

Mr Coveney also revealed that reintroducing a €5,455 specialised instructors’ allowance is being considered, given hiring challenges. He said he saw value in this Raco demand due to an expected increase in recruitment, although it would bring challenges because it had been “bought out”.

He said he had received indications from the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform that the allowance would be one of the first matters to be looked at by a new “allowances mechanism”.

Lt Col Conor King, Raco general secretary, warned the minister that the defence forces organisation had become a “leaky bucket” that “no amount of water has been able to fill”.

He said this was because it was in the grip of a major crisis in trying to retain staff.

Mr King said officers could only come to the sad conclusion that the issue did “not register on the list of priorities at the Cabinet table”.

He warned that the Government aim to achieve a minimum strength of 11,500 was not “realistic or achievable” due to current policies. He said the “honest” figure for the size of the defence forces was 7,752.

The minister acknowledged that recruitment and retention was a key challenge but denied there was an “exodus” of doctors from the defence forces.

He said the Government had committed to the largest funding hike for defence ever, increasing the defence budget to €1.5bn by 2028.

Mr Coveney also said a judge-led independent review group was seen as a “vital” first step to ensure there was “zero tolerance” of unacceptable behaviour.

Defence Forces chief of staff Seán Clancy told delegates, after referring to the Women of Honour group’s “harrowing claims”, that he is “now more convinced than ever that many of the distressing and unacceptable experiences that have been experienced by your members are not merely confined to history”.

He said this was borne out by a recent survey that pointed “to clear and present issues regarding unacceptable and unethical behaviours in the organisation”.