Results 941-960 of 1,031,385 for in 'Dáil debates' OR in 'Committee meetings' (speaker:Mick Barry OR speaker:Pat Deering OR speaker:Noel Grealish)
- Defence Forces: Motions (3 Jul 2024)
Micheál Martin: There is separate legislation coming.
- Defence Forces: Motions (3 Jul 2024)
Catherine Connolly: Interestingly, in the report on the service of members of the Defence Forces with the UN, which one of the motions proposes to accept, rather than giving us an outline - although you pay tribute to them, which I welcome - and highlight the fantastic peacekeeping work they do and the lives they have saved, almost two pages of your speech tonight were devoted to the triple lock. You refer to...
- Defence Forces: Motions (3 Jul 2024)
Mark Ward: I welcome the opportunity to contribute to the debate on this motion. Ireland prides itself as a neutral and peaceful nation. Our neutrality is a strength. It is valued and supported by the Irish people. On the international stage our neutrality has underpinned our contribution to peacemaking and diplomacy and has never been a weakness. In the Tánaiste's opening comments at the...
- Defence Forces: Motions (3 Jul 2024)
Micheál Martin: No, we did not.
- Defence Forces: Motions (3 Jul 2024)
Mark Ward: We need to address the chronic underinvestment in our Defence Forces to allow Ireland to continue to participate in UN peacekeeping missions, to defend and monitor our skies and seas and to protect Ireland from real threats we face including cyberattacks. I have spoken many times on matters of defence in this Dáil. I mentioned before that my own father spent 25 years in the Army....
- Defence Forces: Motions (3 Jul 2024)
Micheál Martin: They have improved dramatically.
- Defence Forces: Motions (3 Jul 2024)
Mark Ward: I will counteract that. We have a situation now where people who go away for six months, serve in the United Nations, come back and have to sign on for the working family payment. That is the truth because the pay is that low.
- Defence Forces: Motions (3 Jul 2024)
Micheál Martin: Ah, come on.
- Defence Forces: Motions (3 Jul 2024)
Mark Ward: I can send the details about this. The pay is so low that soldiers are coming back from United Nations peacekeeping missions and having to claim the working family payment. That is a damning indictment on the Government. Pay and conditions within the Defence Forces have been something my Sinn Féin colleagues and I have raised regularly and they need to improve. This is how you...
- Defence Forces: Motions (3 Jul 2024)
Peter Fitzpatrick: On a personal note, I thank the Tánaiste for the update on Private Seán Rooney, who was killed on 14 December 2022, and for keeping the pressure on the Lebanese ministers for foreign affairs and defence and their legal department. It is very important to get justice for Private Seán Rooney, his family and his colleagues. It is also nice to note that it is a priority of this...
- Defence Forces: Motions (3 Jul 2024)
Micheál Martin: The money is not low any more.
- Defence Forces: Motions (3 Jul 2024)
Peter Fitzpatrick: Maybe not any more but when someone goes into the Army, he or she will be starting from a very low base and everything else.
- Defence Forces: Motions (3 Jul 2024)
Micheál Martin: It is higher.
- Defence Forces: Motions (3 Jul 2024)
Peter Fitzpatrick: If a garda and a nurse are married, they still cannot afford to buy a three-bedroom house in Dublin.
- Defence Forces: Motions (3 Jul 2024)
Micheál Martin: What is the starting rate?
- Defence Forces: Motions (3 Jul 2024)
Peter Fitzpatrick: These are young people who want to have a career and to be properly trained and to be properly financed for the work. These people are deployed on UN peacekeeping missions. They are away from their families for six to eight months. I am a family man, and that seems a long time to be away. These people are making sacrifices. The rewards should be there. I will put my hand up and say...
- Defence Forces: Motions (3 Jul 2024)
Martin Browne: My party colleague Deputy Cronin made the point earlier that what we owe to our Defence Forces personnel is to maintain a system that minimises risk and maximises the contribution they can make to global peace, but the unfortunate reality is there are only 7,500 personnel, as opposed to the target of 11,500. The Tánaiste may revert to the claim that the issue was inherited by the...
- Defence Forces: Motions (3 Jul 2024)
Paul Murphy: I am sharing time. What we see here is an exercise in boiling the frog of neutrality, that is, just turning up the temperature, bit by bit, and hoping the people will not notice; removing any real content from the word "neutrality" while keeping simply the word; getting rid of the triple lock, which, as the Tánaiste said himself, is at the core of our neutrality; and signing up for more...
- Defence Forces: Motions (3 Jul 2024)
Micheál Martin: It is not misinformation.
- Defence Forces: Motions (3 Jul 2024)
Paul Murphy: I will tell the Tánaiste why it is misinformation. I quoted this previously to him and he did not respond.