No Reason For Delayed Implementation Of Defence Forces Pay Agreement
Aontú Leader & Meath West TD Peadar Tóibín has called once again for the implementation of the Technical Pay Agreement, after the Minister for Defence could once again offer no substantive reason for delayed implementation.
An Teachta Tóibín:
“Our Defence Forces are consistently amongst the worst-treated and underpaid sectors in our country. These our Defence Forces that are taxed at the top rate on monies received from the UN for their services abroad, and thousands of whom are forced to leave every year for no other reason than pay and conditions. I put it directly to the Minister what was the obstacle to the implementation of the Technical Pay Agreement agreed over a year ago with the Defence Forces. He offered none, and rather just said that why the Technical Pay Agreement has not yet been implemented will be considered in the negotiations for the next public service pay agreement. This is an insult to our men and women in uniform.”
“It’s becoming increasingly clear that if you are not in the favoured circle of FF/FG, then you are not going to get much of a look in. Student nurses were and are used and abused by a broken healthcare system. Our Defence Forces are deployed in every national emergency and across the globe in the name of peace, but are given tuppence by their own government and taxed on their UN payments. All the while, TDs and Senators have gotten pay rises and armies of special advisors. The Judiciary were gifted a 2% pay increase. At the cost of €12 per annum, pensions cuts are being reversed for the highest paid civil servants in the country. Whilst, former Taoisigh are set to get a €17,000 bump up of their €134,000 per annum pension.”
“The message is clear: student nurses and our Defence Forces are at the back of the line behind Judges, former Taoisigh, Party Whips, Special Advisors and TDs/Senators. Not for the many, but for the few. We are most certainly not in anything together.”
