PDFORRA has called on the Minister for Defence to set up a tribunal to deal with compensation for hearing damage to soldiers. It promised that if the terms on offer were reasonable it would "not be found wanting in support". Senior executives of the soldiers' representative body met Mr Smith yesterday and stressed the need to resolve the matter at the "minimum possible expense". They made it clear that the problem would "not go away", that the confrontational approach in court was just increasing costs and that Mr Smith would have to be "more creative" in finding a solution.
After the meeting, they said: "If the Minister is reasonable with the tribunal terms on offer we will not be found wanting in regard to support." They said the Green Book approach had failed and that should be accepted.
Mr John Lucey, the general secretary of PDFORRA, said: "We always felt the Green Book was flawed in several respects, particularly its inconsistency in regard to proven negligence, whereby the Green Book formula does not compensate for hearing injury of less than 20 decibels. Our views on this matter are well known and, essentially, the courts are now confirming our concerns."
Other matters raised with the Minister were pay, recent reports on the Naval Service and Air Corps, restructuring and the proposed White Paper on Defence.
A spokesman for the Minister told The Irish Times there were areas of agreement between the sides and both agreed the hearing issue was damaging to the force. There would soon be another case in the High Court and he hoped this test case would confirm the Green Book as providing the standard for dealing with all cases.