Irish Examiner view: Exclusion of Defence Forces a dereliction of duty

For decades, the military has not been covered by the Working Time Directive

Millions of euro have been saved by the State because soldiers, aircrew, and sailors have never been properly compensated for working excessive hours.

When is the Government going to put a stop to a seemingly endless dereliction of duty when it comes to the country’s armed forces?

In Monday’s Irish Examiner, our defence correspondent, Sean O’Riordan, highlighted the fact that, for decades, our Defence Forces has been excluded from the European Working Time Directive (WTD). Millions of euro have been saved by the State because soldiers, aircrew, and sailors have never been properly compensated for working excessive hours.

These problems were highlighted in the Gleeson Commission’s report in 1990 and should have been acted upon in 2003 when the WTD became law across Europe.

This is a scandal heaped upon many others which have engulfed the Irish army, navy, and air corps. From the horrors of a sexual abuse scandal to that which has seen recruitment plummet because of pay levels, our Defence Forces requires support and investment. That each member of those forces has to swear an oath not to take any form of industrial actions has stymied their ability to protest their treatment.

The result is not only detrimental to those serving their country in any branch of the forces, but is leading to an underfunded and demoralised armed service. As our national identity and neutrality dominate military discussion, spare a thought for its overlooked personnel.

Strongmen wreak chaos

Both Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu have turned personal crises into national ones. Picture: Sue Ogrocki/AP

Although the physical likenesses are non-existent, there is a remarkable similarity between Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu and the chaos these two men are wreaking on the respective democracies of the US and Israel.

In the history of both countries, there have never been two individuals for whom the wellbeing of their nations and their peoples have meant so little as they strive to keep themselves from facing the full rigours of the law in their respective jurisdictions.

Both Trump and Netanyahu have turned personal crises into national ones in blatant attempts to save their own skin from the laws of their own lands. The driving priority for both men is their own personal interest.

Both are in a fight to stay out of prison; one is trying to regain power to stay out of jail, while the other has formed the most right-wing and extremist government in his country’s history for exactly the same purpose.

Trump has a stack of federal and state charges already lined up against him, with more to come, while Netanyahu, on the other hand, is in the middle of a three-year corruption trial. Having control of power gives both their best chance of avoiding justice.

The former US president regularly fusillades the institutions of state with populist rhetoric and, were he to regain power, has indicated he will dismember the independence of the judicial system and the Department of Justice.

Netanyahu has a taken slightly different tack in coalescing with extreme ultranationalists who are unashamedly racist and have openly hostile views on LGBT+ rights. Together, the prime minister and his bedfellows have caused uproar across Israel by introducing legislation to curb the power of the judiciary.

Such moves would only serve both men well in their attempts to avoid justice and indicate just how desperate each one is to achieve such an eventuality. These are men who have driven their countries to levels of hatred within each society to levels hitherto unseen. Neither has any interest in democracy; their only interest is in saving themselves from a fate their past and current indiscretions richly deserve.

Saudi sportswashing

Saudi’s public investment fund has singlehandedly upended the world of professional golf, firstly by funding the breakaway Liv Tour. Picture: PA

Never in the history of sport has the amoral lure of filthy lucre been more evident than that in which the government of Saudi Arabia is currently involved.

The Saudi’s public investment fund has singlehandedly upended the world of professional golf, firstly by funding the breakaway Liv Tour and paying hundreds of millions of dollars to already-wealthy members of the PGA Tour and what used to be the European Tour (now the DP World Tour) to jump ship.

Then it reached a controversial agreement with the US and European golf tours — something still shrouded in mystery and under investigation by the US Senate — to establish a new body to run both and which will be fully funded solely by the country’s vast sovereign wealth fund and ultimately headed by a Saudi businessman.

In recent weeks, the fund took a majority shareholding in the four top soccer clubs and what has followed has taken world soccer by storm as those clubs have started spending vast sums of money to bring global stars of the game to Saudi. They have offered Paris St Germain €300m for Kylian Mbappe and on Monday offered Napoli €140m for Victor Osimhen, with €1m per week in salary. Liverpool captain Jordan Henderson, a staunch ally of the LGBT+ community, has already jumped ship for the kind of money that wouldn’t look out of place on one of our bank’s recent earnings calls.

On the face of it, there is no reason the Saudi government should have any interest in golf or soccer. Or why it is targeting tennis next, or why it has paid a huge amount for an involvement in Formula One, boxing, WWE, esports, and other hugely popular televised sports or sporting events.

The reason is that Saudi is using top-line sports to present an image of the country that overlooks its hugely questionable human rights record and its persecution of women’s rights and LGBT+ activists.

It is doing this simply because it can and because few others can afford to do what it is doing. Where it will end is anyone’s guess.