Additional pay allowances to compensate for the “unique challenges” of being in the Naval Service are vital to attract new recruits, the group representing enlisted personnel has said.
The annual conference of the Permanent Defence Forces Other Ranks Representative Association (PDForra) heard that Naval Pay, a special allowance introduced 50 years ago, has not been reviewed since its inception. Naval Pay was first introduced in 1975 at a time when the Naval Service was facing a similar manpower crisis to today.
PDForra president Mark Keane said the allowance “was designed to compensate personnel for the vagaries that go along with membership of the Naval Service”.
“These disadvantages included the fact that there is only one base in the country and that membership of the navy brings with it unique challenges.”
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The pay was designed to attract people to the Naval Service from all over the country at a time when a large proportion of its membership came from Co Cork, where the country’s only naval base is located at Haulbowline. At the time Naval Pay represented 20 per cent of basic pay. By 1989 it accounted for just 4.5 per cent of the pay of an able seaman rank at point one on the pay scale. By 2019 it was a “cursory” 3.7 per cent, Mr Keane said.
At the higher rank of warrant officer it was just 1.9 per cent, the PDForra president said.
Other pay areas for Naval Service members have increased in recent years. Mr Keane welcomed these but said “if we truly wish to keep the ship afloat allowances that incentivise service in the navy must be maintained and improved upon”.
Mr Keane said if the Defence Forces “can’t get people to come to Cork and join the navy from across the country it will all be wasted effort”.
Issues of pay and conditions and their impact on recruitment and retention dominated the conference in Trim, Co Meath. “The security of this State cannot be sacrificed as a cost-saving measure,” one delegate told the conference. “No more do the young people of Ireland believe the Defence Forces can sustain the basic hierarchy of human needs.”
PDForra general secretary Ger Guinan said the Department of Defence has failed to address the issue of allowances across the military “which lag far behind our counterparts in other areas of the public service when overtime is calculated”. This is having a negative impact on morale across the organisation.
He said the failure to implement the EU Working Time directive “in a fair manner” has also had consequences, “namely the dysfunctional turnover rates and inability to recruit personnel in sufficient numbers”. He said the Government needed to “grasp the nettle” and ask itself “is it fair to pay personnel €60 before tax for an additional 16 hours overtime work?”
