Implementing the Irish Commission on the Defence Forces recommendations – RACO’s perspective
Azure Forum Strategic Insight 009/2024
By Lt. Col. Conor King, General Secretary, Representative Association of Commissioned Officers
The Irish government appointed the Commission on the Defence Forces in December 2020 to assess and make recommendations on the appropriate capabilities, structures and staffing of the Defence Forces in the immediate future and the period beyond 2030. The Commission published its report on 09 February 2022 and recommended substantial changes to the Defence Forces’ funding, capabilities, high level command and control structures, and staffing. Concern remains as to the adequacy of the selected Level of Ambition, the pace of implementation and the detail of the legislation to implement some of the recommendations.
The Commission Report was fully accepted by Government and found that “[c]ompared to our peers in western and northern Europe, it is very clear that Ireland is an outlier in relation to defence funding.” The scale of additional funding that is required for each Level of Ambition (LOA) has been illustrated on a single year basis by comparing the 2020 gross outturn (representing LOA 1) against an approximation for LOA 2 and LOA 3. Based on the Commission’s own estimate of the cost of a step up to LOA 2, an annual increase of some 50%, bringing the funding up to approximately €1.5 billion per year, would be required. For a further step up to LOA 3, which is based on the 2020 average GDP percentage of comparator countries applied to Ireland’s estimated 2020 GNI*[1], the Commission estimated that an annual budget of almost €3 billion would be required.
The Commission made it clear that the current level of financial commitment (LOA 1) delivers military capabilities which are inadequate for the Defence of Ireland and its people from the threats identified in their report and that staying at this level would ‘severely constrain the capacity of the Defence Forces to maintain its overseas commitments and deliver required levels of Aid to the Civil Power (ATCP) and Aid to the Civil Authority (ATCA) supports’. The Report asserted that the provision of a credible defence, on a par with comparator countries, would require a Government policy decision to move to LOA 3 with the appropriate budget.
Inadequate Level of Ambition
In the end, the Government perhaps unsurprisingly decided to opt for LOA 2 to attempt to address priority gaps in our current capabilities to defend Ireland’s sovereign interests, serve on high intensity missions abroad and contribute to national resilience and security. This includes a net increase in the Permanent Defence Force establishment of some 2,000 personnel, bringing the total to approximately 11,500, to provide for a range of recommendations made including double crewing of naval ships, creation of a separate training establishment, increasing staff resources for a number of units and providing the resources required to undertake the necessary human resources and command and control structural reforms. The Government chose LOA 2 in the knowledge that, according to the Commission, this would not deliver the capability required to develop full spectrum defence capabilities on a par with other sovereign European countries.
Shortly after the publication of the report of the Commission on the Defence Forces in February 2022, war returned to Europe for the first time in three decades, with the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
In July 2022, the Government published its response to the Commission Report in the form of a High Level Action Plan (HLAP) and approved a decision to move to LOA 2 as outlined in the Commission Report, together with a commitment to move to an annual Defence budget equivalent to €1.5 bn by 2028 (to be agreed through the annual estimates process). It has been reported that the annual defence budget increased to €1.21bn in 2022 and €1.23 bn in 2024 with an annual capital spend of €176m in each year. Although this has been hailed as a record capital spend provided to Defence, it is coming from a very low base, and Ireland still spends, and appears set to continue to spend, the lowest amount on defence in the entire European Union.
On 21 March 2024, Tánaiste and Minister for Defence Micheál Martin informed the Dáil that over the period 2020 to 2024, the combined Defence budget has increased from €1,040 million to €1,250 million, an increase of €210 million, amounting to an increase of over 20% in that period. However, the meagre increase of 3.3%, or €40m between 2023 and 2024 indicates an apparent lack of urgency regarding increases in Defence investment.
Moreover, the gradual move towards the bare minimum “Level of Ambition 2” by 2028 arguably ignores the significant destabilising developments in geopolitical security precipitated by Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine soon after the release of the Commission’s report, and the subsequent response of many other European nations in beefing up their defence investment, or in the case of formerly fellow neutrals Finland and Sweden, joining NATO. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen recently described the direction that the EU is likely to take stating that while the threat of war may not be imminent, it is not impossible, and will necessitate ‘turbocharging’ European defence capacity in the next five years.
Positive Developments
Some positive recommendations to boost Irish Defence Forces retention and capability delivered to date include the replacement of existing Sea Going allowances for Naval Service personnel with less complex measures, resulting in a long overdue significant increase to the Patrol Duty Allowance. This was announced by Minister of State Jack Chambers at the RACO Conference in November 2023 and was a measure that had long been called for by Defence Forces representative associations, in the face of a seemingly inexorable decline in naval service strength and operational capability.
The extension of private healthcare arrangements to enlisted personnel is a welcome boost to the total benefits package and should assist in attracting and retaining key personnel. Additional key recommendations that are close to delivery and that can make a real difference to retention of Defence Forces personnel are the removal of blanket exclusion from the Organisation of Working Time Act, and the enactment of primary legislation to give effect to associate membership of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, and to restore oversight to the Defence Forces, which was removed by the Department of Defence in 2018.
The Detailed Implementation Plan released in November 2023 sets out the planned timeline for delivery of crucial primary military radar, but not until 2028. Strategic airlift capability has also been prioritised as a capability for investment, following well documented deficits in this critical capability. A contract was recently awarded to Airbus for the provision of a new Fixed Wing Military Transport Aircraft for the Defence Forces. The Airbus C295W aircraft is currently being manufactured and delivery is expected in mid-2025. The aircraft should enable the Air Corps to provide a wide range of services including logistics support and transport of troops and equipment, medical evacuation and air ambulance, Special Operations Forces operations and a general utility role.
The Commission on the Defence Forces recommendation that Working Time Directive implementation should be urgently negotiated between management and representative associations was an early action of the High Level Action Plan. RACO has consistently argued that a failure to provide adequate rest and compensatory time off to military personnel significantly impacts their home-life and the ability of many to sustain a career in the Defence Forces. For too long, members’ time has been treated as an infinite resource, without consideration of work life balance, and the fact that our organisation has never even recorded working time, in contravention of EU law, and still does not, denies Defence Forces members access to benefits such as overtime which are available to other public sector employees, thereby depriving the organisation of a fundamental retention tool. It is essential that the Directive is implemented urgently, where it will be a game changer for morale, work life balance and retention.
A Sting in the Tail
Unfortunately, the Department of Defence has sought to exploit the requirement to legislate for membership of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU) by seeking to impose through amendments to the Defence Act what has been described by several Oireachtas members as a ‘gagging order’ on representative associations, in order to prohibit them from commenting on or questioning the merits of government policy. If allowed, this will have a catastrophic impact on Defence Forces morale and retention and would be a major act of self-harm. RACO and the Permanent Defence Force Other Ranks Representative Association (PDFORRA) have been supported by our colleagues in ICTU and the European Organisation of Military Associations and Trade Unions (EUROMIL) in seeking to oppose these measures through participation in the Pre-Legislative Scrutiny process.
The Strategic Framework published by the Department of Defence noted that it is key to the transformation process that real progress is felt at all levels across the Defence Forces and this will be measured and monitored using regular surveys which will be published. This is welcome, as the last such Climate Survey was conducted in 2016 and published by the Department of Defence in 2017. In addition, exit interviews to ascertain the factors influencing retention of Defence Forces personnel have been largely absent in recent years, with RACO filling these gaps through regularly published surveys of our members.
Personnel acknowledge that there is much important work being done to implement the recommendations of the Commission and are starting to see some green shoots of recovery. Nevertheless, recent geopolitical developments mean that we have no time to waste in fully implementing the Commission recommendations and moving without delay towards LOA 3. The most important Key Performance Indicator, and measure of whether employment policies and conditions of service are attractive and effective is the strength of the organisation. Since the Commission reported in February 2022, Defence Forces strength has fallen by a further 1,000 personnel, to its current low of approximately 7,500 all ranks. This suggests that not all members have bought into the transformation effort, and this will require listening to ‘employee voice’ to ensure buy-in, rather than sidelining it.
[1] Modified Gross National Income is an indicator designed specifically to measure the size of the Irish economy by excluding globalisation effects.
Lt Col Conor King is an Army Officer with over 25 years’ service in the Irish Defence Forces. He has been the RACO General Secretary since January 2019. He holds a BComm with German from NUI Galway, a Master of Business Studies Degree in Human Resource Management from University of Limerick and a MSc in Business (Leadership & Management Practice) from UCD Michael Smurfit Graduate Business School.
Supported by