Recent events have reminded us that the world is an unpredictable place. The combined threats of a global pandemic, a worldwide recession and a potentially hard Brexit have arrived simultaneously on our shores.
Individuals take out insurance to protect themselves from unexpected events. Countries use militaries as insurance to mitigate risk and provide national resilience in times of great crisis.
It is no secret that successive Irish governments have skimped on their premiums. Consequently, Ireland’s national insurance policy, its military, is now unrecognisable from the proud organisation that existed a mere decade ago. Closing half the state’s military installations and reducing the number of personnel from 10,500 to its current strength of 8,500 has had a devastating effect on capability.
It is not unreasonable to expect a nation’s armed forces to have the resources to offer basic security services. Counter-terrorism, the securing of critical state infrastructure, and the policing of airspace and territorial waters are fundamental requirements of sovereign states. As a result of successive cutbacks, however, these operations have been seriously compromised.
While great credit is due to the significant number of Defence Force personnel who selflessly worked and continue to work on the frontline of this crisis, the pandemic has exposed other chinks in the military’s armour.
Military hospitals, stripped of equipment, can no longer accept in-patients. Mobile field hospitals, which would have been ideal for the current crisis, have been decommissioned. Meanwhile, the number of military doctors, nurses and paramedics has been greatly reduced.
When civilian airports and airlines ceased operating, air forces from other small nations flew their citizens home. Unsurprisingly, there were no Irish military aircraft to repatriate our people or even our own troops from remote missions overseas.
For years, our Reserve Defence Force (RDF) has been systematically undermined as funds specifically allocated by the Oireachtas for its upkeep were diverted elsewhere. Today, the RDF has just 30 per cent of the personnel required to make it effective and responsive to the needs of society.
Reserve personnel could have been used to run the entire contact tracing system for the HSE. Already interviewed and security-vetted, the reservists could have been mobilised in response to fluctuating Covid case numbers. A properly functioning contact-tracing system would have greatly reduced the necessity for national lockdowns.
The reason for the decline in our armed forces is multi-faceted. Military personnel are prohibited from engaging in any form of industrial action so their representative associations had little bargaining power at successive national pay talks. As a result, instead of being rewarded for their commitment, military personnel were exploited. Meanwhile, negotiators representing other groups were offered lucrative side-deals upfront and further concessions following industrial action over the lifetime of their agreements. As this trend continued, the pay gap widened and Defence Force personnel became the lowest paid employees in the public service.
The military culture of loyalty, obedience and “soldiering on” in the face of adversity has meant that troops continue to work for €4 or €5 an hour before tax for additional rostered security work at night and over the weekend.
Moreover, the closures of barracks mean that long commutes, sometimes between Donegal and Dublin, are commonplace. Soldiers are out of pocket just getting to work, and family life is suffering.
Morale has plummeted and personnel are leaving for better employment opportunities and improved quality of life elsewhere. These structural problems were repeatedly highlighted by military commanders and representative associations for years, but their concerns were dismissed. Last year, in an unprecedented intervention, President Michael D Higgins publicly expressed his dissatisfaction with his troops’ pay and conditions. This was also largely ignored.
In spite of this, glimmers of hope are beginning to emerge. There have been some small but noticeable improvements in recent months. The appointment of a new Minister for Defence and the replacement of the Secretary General of the Department of Defence has significantly improved the atmosphere. A 3 per cent increase in the 2021 Defence budget, minor tweaks to tax credits for sailors and financial recognition of the sacrifice of troops forced to quarantine in barracks prior to deploying overseas are all to be welcomed.
Defence Minister Simon Coveney has also announced that he will shortly table legislation to modernise the RDF, allowing reservists to deploy on operations both at home and overseas.
To sustain this progress, however, three things need to happen in the next three months. Firstly, it is imperative that the terms of reference for the Commission on Defence, due before cabinet shortly, will allow for the review of the entire Defence organisation.
The credibility of the Commission will be undermined if it can only examine the Defence Forces without also reviewing the Department of Defence.
Secondly, in order to facilitate investment in new aircraft, the Air Corps should be considered for at least part of the country’s next search-and-rescue contract, the tendering process for which is to be discussed in the new year.
Thirdly and most importantly, the quantum assigned to the Defence sector during the upcoming public sector pay talks must be sufficient to address the historical legacy of the military’s shoddy treatment at this forum and to facilitate the implementation in full of staff retention measures already committed to by government.
It has taken ten years for our Defence Forces to get into this mess, so it will take some time to emerge from it.
If the three measures suggested above were implemented, however, we could then say with confidence that a process of renewal is underway and that this long period of darkness will soon be behind us.
Cathal Berry is an independent TD for Kildare South and a former army ranger