Wives & Partners of the Defence Forces in fundraising drive for struggling military personnel

By Sean O’Riordan, Defence Correspondent

A lobby group is raising funds in advance of Christmas to help struggling military personnel feed their families and keep a roof over their heads.

Wives & Partners of the Defence Forces (WPDF) has set up a GoFundMe site on its Facebook page and is seeking public support.

WPDF welfare officer Sarah Walshe, whose husband serves in the army, said the group was aware of several cases where military personnel had their homes repossessed, were “sofa-surfing” at friends’ houses and not eating lunches as they could not afford them.

“We also know that the children of a number of serving personnel are having pasta and cereal for lunch,” said Ms Walshe. “They are getting no meat.

“I know of one soldier, his partner and daughter are sofa-surfing at different friends’ houses because they can’t afford the rents around Kildare. Also, there is very little available accommodation in that area [close to the Curragh camp]/”

Ms Walshe said a Soldiers’ Aid Fund was set up some years ago to help serving personnel who ran into financial difficulties.

Unfortunately there is very little money in that now,” she said. “So we have decided to put all the money we raise into it.

Ms Walshe said it will then be decided by Defence Forces Personnel Support Services where the money will be distributed.

Although it is called the Soldiers’ Aid Fund, the money will also be dispensed to worthy individuals serving in the Naval Service and the Air Corps.

Ms Walshe said that while money had already been pledged by serving members and veterans, members of the public who had heard of the plight of some Defence Forces families were also beginning to donate.

She said many personnel were in dire straits and ca not afford to wait on the Public Service Pay Commission to give them a pay rise.

Senator Gerard Craughwell, a former soldier in both the Irish and British armies, said he was “horrified to think” that fundraising was now necessary to provide members of the Defence Forces with a basic living standard.

“They’re [WPDF] the people on the ground and they know what is happening,” he said.

Mr Craughwell said he “couldn’t understand how it had got to this stage” as he and many others had repeatedly warned the Department of Defence about the difficulties being faced by military families because of continuing poor pay and conditions.