More than 6,000 military personnel owed money from pay agreement

Tue, 12 May, 2026 - 20:00

Sean O’Riordan

More than 6,000 military personnel are waiting nearly a year to be paid a combined €3.7m in claims under local bargaining agreements that have not been signed off by the Department of Public Expenditure.

This has already led to some experienced technicians leaving the Defence Forces because they have opted to quit and take up better paid jobs in the private sector, representatives have said.

The Government agreed to set aside the money for the Defence Forces as part of the national pay agreement 2024 – 2026, to which PDForra, the association representing enlisted members of the military, signed up.

PDForra deputy general secretary Martin Bright told the association’s annual conference that while the Department of Defence and senior military management had backed the claims, public expenditure minister Jack Chambers and department officials have to date not paid them out.

Under the terms of the agreement, some senior technicians are owed up to €5,000 each.

Mr Bright provided 100 delegates attending the conference in Westport, Co Mayo, with a comprehensive list of the types of personnel who had been included in the claims, which had been backed by recommendations from the conciliation counsel and through adjudication.

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They cover personnel of all ranks and across all three wings of the Defence Forces — army, naval service, and air corps.

They include the likes of bomb disposal experts, air traffic controllers, artillery drone operators, military police, helicopter crews, engineers, chefs, instructors, and communications personnel.

Mr Bright said that due to their vital expertise, some personnel had more than one claim lodged.

He said that the Garda Representative Association (GRA) and the Irish Prison Officers Association (IPOA) had lodged similar claims on behalf of their respective members, and they had not been paid out either.

Mr Bright said both of those organisations were right to highlight the non-payment to their members, but compared to them, the pay in the Defence Forces is at a lower base.

He said not paying his members the agreed local bargaining top-ups in their income is a serious issue, especially as the Defence Forces are still suffering a retention crisis when it comes to highly trained technicians.

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“The money they are owed might get somebody in our association out of financial difficulty. They (our members) signed up to the national pay agreement in good faith and this (local bargaining clause) was part of it,” Mr Bright said.

He said he is aware of senior technicians who’d left the Defence Forces because “they were hanging on and on for it and couldn’t wait any more".

“It is extremely disappointing that none of these claims has yet been paid. This is simply unacceptable and is having a negative effect on morale right across the Defence Forces, especially as we are in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis,” Mr Bright said.

Some PDForra delegates privately expressed fears that the Government might renege on the deal, especially after Mr Chambers recently stated that government departments will have to cut their spending by up to 1.4% next year.

PDForra general secretary Gerard Guinan told delegates that he will highlight the non-payment issue with defence minister Helen McEntee when she attends the conference on Wednesday.