Group to take soldiers’ pay battle to ballot box

A lobby group fighting for better pay and conditions for the Defence Forces is considering mounting an assault on the Dáil — through the ballot box.

The Military Family, which counts a number of former senior officers and commanders among its membership, feels the only way to get the Government to listen is to hit them where it hurts most — in their seats.

Possible election candidates include former second-in-command of the elite Army Ranger Wing, ex-Commandant Cathal Berry, who resigned from the Defence Forces last May so he could highlight how badly lower ranks are treated by the Department of Defence.

He confirmed he “received an approach” to run in the Kildare South constituency and is “considering it”.

“There’s only two ways to get things done,” said Mr Berry.

“That’s either to embarrass a minister or threaten their seats. This is a last resort, but it seems inevitable because they [military personnel] are being so badly treated by the Department of Defence.” Mr Berry

Retired Brigadier General Ger Aherne, a prominent member of the Military Family, said the organisation has been working on a campaign strategy.

He said its candidates would not just seek to get elected, but would also be running to prevent politicians who have not helped the cause of the Defence Forces from getting a seat.

Mr Aherne said the Military Family has received a lot of publicity in the media regarding recent protests held in Cork and Dublin in support of serving Defence Forces personnel.

However, he said that while that created noise, “the only way to effect change and to get politicians to take us seriously is through the ballot box”.

Mr Aherne added that former senior military personnel within the Military Family “have been formulating and implementing strategy all our lives. We’re experts at it.”

His organisation has calculated there are at least 150,000 votes among serving and retired members of the permanent forces, the reserves, and all their families combined.

That’s a minimum, but it’s more possibly 200,000 and could be up to 250,000.

Mr Aherne said the obvious areas to target are areas which possess those which have military bases.

They include Cork North, Cork South, Cork East, Kildare North, Kildare South, Roscommon- East - Galway, Donegal, Sligo-Leitrim, and some Dublin constituencies.

“We will be targeting military families with messaging about which political parties are anti-Defence Forces,” said Mr Aherne.

The lobby group is planning a protest march in Galway on Saturday, August 10.

Meanwhile, ARCO (Association of Retired Commissioned Officers) has expressed “particular concern” at the “alarming” increase in personnel exiting the Defence Forces.

ARCO said the exit rate for the Army moved from 4.92% in 2014 to 7.27% last year.

The Air Corps rate increased from 4.24% in 2013 to 8.14% in 2018, and the Naval Service exodus rose from 7.23% in 2013 to 14.81%.