Defence Forces officers feel ‘betrayed’

Officers in the Defence Forces feel betrayed by their employers, because military personnel were left out of “side deals” given to gardaí, prison officers, and firefighters as part of the latest Lansdowne Road pay agreements.

“That, to us, was a betrayal of our commitment and loyalty,” Lieutenant Colonel Earnan Naughton, general secretary of the Representative Association of Commissioned Officers (Raco), said at the first day of his association’s conference in Naas, Co Kildare, yesterday.

Raco, which represents 1,100 officers in the army, naval service and air corps, does not have union status, meaning it cannot strike, and its members are not subject to the EU working time agreement.