Doubling of women in Defence Forces needs radical plan - representative body

Radical new work practices are needed in the army, air corps, and naval service if a Government target of doubling the number of women serving is to be achieved, the Defence Forces’ representative body has said.

PDforra, the association representing soldiers, sailors and aircrew, believes while increased recruitment may bring more women into the ranks, more flexibility needs to be introduced in order to retain them.

"Greater efforts must be made to help women balance the often competing demands of their employers and their families, for which they generally have a wider responsibility than men," general secretary Gerry Rooney said at the opening session of the association's annual delegate conference in Galway.

Total strength

Mr Rooney was responding to a pledge by Minister for Defence Simon Coveney last month that the number of women serving be doubled from the current 6 per cent, or 575 personnel of a total strength just over 9,000.

The association has pointed to the gender breakdown in the Reserve Defence Forces, where women account for 15 per cent of the 2,700 full strength, as an example the permanent forces could follow.

However, it said areas such as taking leave of absences needed to be reworked with women in mind, especially those who wanted to start families.

“The present system of administration of leave of absence makes it harder for women to qualify for pensions - and this is totally unsatisfactory and unacceptable,” Mr Rooney said.

“The Defence Forces must now sort out this issue as a first step in the process of increasing the number of women serving and as part of their duty of care to women currently serving both at home and overseas.”

Separately, Mr Rooney said military personnel serving in the Mediterranean saving migrants trying to get to Italy were not being paid properly.

Support allowance

His organisation believed its members serving on the international rescue mission should be entitled to the overseas armed peace support allowance that colleagues serving overseas in trouble spots were paid.

“The personnel concerned volunteered for the mission and carried out the difficult duties involved to a very high standard and to international acclaim,” he said of the Mediterranean rescue deployment.

“Now that the mission is ending, those involved feel that they have been duped and are being ignored.”

He described the argument for the allowance as “an open and shut case”.

“The humanitarian relief-and-rescue operation is conducted from Naval Service warships which must be ready to defend themselves and those they have rescued at any time during mission.

“They must be paid an allowance for this work and we now stress to the Minister that he has a responsibility in ensuring a positive outcome.

“It was the Minister and his Government who committed the Naval Service to this mission - and surely this was done with the knowledge that an allowance would be due to those who volunteered their services.”

Mr Coveney and Defence Forces Chief of Staff Vice Admiral Mark Mellett are set to address conference on Wednesday.