Navy personnel loyalty bonus now 'months overdue'

The Sea Service Commitment Scheme was introduced to much fanfare last January by Minister for Defence Simon Coveney in an effort to provide some certainty about adequate numbers of personnel being available going forward for offshore patrols.

Naval Service personnel who signed up for a special loyalty bonus to ensure there were enough crews to undertake sea patrols are still waiting to be paid the first tranche of the money, “which is now months overdue.” 

The Sea Service Commitment Scheme was introduced to much fanfare last January by Minister for Defence Simon Coveney in an effort to provide some certainty about adequate numbers of personnel being available for offshore patrols. It was introduced because of the lack of adequate crew numbers in general, and specialists in particular.

The Naval Service has been dogged by personnel shortages in recent years. This has led to two ships being tied up and others delayed going out to sea on patrols because they don't have full crews.

The loyalty payment of €10,000, which is taxable, was offered to those who signed up to complete two years duty at sea. This was supposed to be paid in four six-monthly tranches.

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However, the sailors haven't received any money to date, even though they should have been paid last June or July at the latest, according to PDForra, the association which represents 6,500 enlisted personnel. PDForra has written to the Department of Defence twice seeking its members to be paid the first tranche, but as of yet to no avail.

“Our members signed up to this in the belief they would be paid promptly, but this has not happened. This wouldn't lend itself to encourage other personnel to sign up to the scheme,” PDForra president Mark Keane said.

The last figures provided to the Irish Examiner by the Defence Forces showed just over 80 personnel had signed up for the scheme – which is barely enough to crew two ships. The scheme was introduced without consultation with PDForra and its sister organisation, RACO, which represents officers.

Both associations subsequently pointed out that the scheme is flawed because it is only open to personnel who have at least three years' service. Mr Keane estimates that 40% of Naval Service personnel are thus ineligible for the loyalty payment.

This also goes to show how young the Naval Service currently is, mainly due to the exodus in recent years of highly-trained personnel who found better pay in the private sector.

Mr Keane said the loyalty bonus is creating a two-tier navy whereby two people standing side by side and doing the very same job were getting substantially different remuneration. He said it was now “adding insult to injury” when those who were supposed to be paid the allowance were still waiting.

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“The people who signed up for this payment did so in the expectation that they'd be paid on time. They've done their duty and it's high time the Department of Defence does its duty and ensures from now on they get the money they're owed in a prompt fashion,” he said.

The PDForra president added that many of those who had signed up for the scheme had families to feed and mortgages to pay and they'd have banked on having that money in their pockets by now.

A formal motion is to come before the PDForra annual conference in Killarney calling on the association's national executive to enter into negotiations with the Department of Defence and military management to reduce the qualifying three-year term for the loyalty payment.