Mark Keane, the president of Pdforra, the organisation representing members of the Defence Forces, has welcomed publication of the Detailed Implementation Plan for the Report of the Commission on the Defence Forces (CoDF), but said that its recommendations need to be implemented as soon as possible.
“We've been very cautious in what we've said about this all along, because we've seen many false dawns. We've been here before. We've seen many reports from the high level implementation plan to the white paper on defence in 2015. So people have to understand, we've seen this before,” he told RTE radio’s Morning Ireland.
“We can't allow this report to gather dust. I know these are the findings from the Commission on Defence, that these are the implementations that they wish to implement. But we need it done as a matter of urgency.”
Mr Keane said that recruiting targets were achievable “if we’re all involved". This would require all the stakeholders to sit around the table and work towards solutions contained in the report to make the defence forces an attractive place for young people to work.
While the starting salary of €37,000 was attractive, the Defence Forces still did not have premium rates of pay for hours worked, he said. “What I mean by that is we still have soldiers, sailors and air crews working in excess of 70 or 80 hours a week who get no remuneration outside of the basic salary.”
A pilot plan will commence in December to ensure that people in the Defence Forces do not work beyond the European maximum recommended hours. “It's something that we've long campaigned for. And actually it's something that this Minister has taken the steps to implement and we welcome that very much. And we find that a very positive development that the Minister has moved on that so quickly.”
Mr Keane acknowledged that much work remained to be done to change the culture of the way women have been treated in the Defence Forces. “We have to. We're an organisation that was very male dominated and it will take time to turn the tide to change people's lives. But we are starting. We want to change. And we very much would need to change if we are to reflect the society that we serve. We have to change our practices and the way we deliver business.”
The recommendations contained in the report need to happen soon, developments in Ukraine and in the Middle East show that “we don’t have the luxury of time on our side, whether it's cyber security or change of work practices, or the working time directive. We have to be in there and know we have to move on this very quickly".
