Members of the PDFORRA executive began a "rolling press conference" outside the gates of the Department of Defence in Infirmary Road, Dublin, yesterday. Their action has been taken in protest at proposed barracks closures and delays in concluding their pay deal under the Programme for Competitiveness and Work. The Minister for Defence, Mr Smith, has not commented on the action.
"When we started pay talks last October the guards were behind us", the PDFORRA general secretary, Mr John Lucey, said. "Now they are ahead of us. We saw what the guards and nurses and prison officers have done to get their cases listened to, while we got nothing.".
Army regulations prevent soldiers from picketing. However, Mr Lucey is entitled to hold press conferences to articulate the concerns of his members, and normally members of his executive are present at these conferences. Hence the group of men in civilian clothes who now patiently walk up and down Infirmary Road with placards bearing the message "Soldiers With No Destiny".
Soldiers received a 3 per cent increase in 1996 and have been offered another 4 per cent. The Garda Representative Association won 3 per cent in 1994, based on enhanced pensions, and its members are now being offered between 5 per cent and 13 per cent, depending on service.
Mr Lucey said soldiers want a 10 per cent increase, and various allowances could be consolidated into the basic pay to help reach this figure. The decision by Mr Smith last week to close six barracks without consultation with PDFORRA was "the last straw".
The Minister for Defence has not decided whether he will meet PDFORRA. A spokesman for the Department said yesterday he would not comment on the "rolling news conference" outside the Department. However, he denied Opposition claims that Mr Smith had refused to meet the organisation to discuss the closure of six military installations.
Government sources said that PDFORRA had accepted a 3 percent increase under the Programme for Competitiveness and Work. Negotiations were subsequently reopened and "a pay deal is now almost complete and could have been concluded this week, but now they are outside the Department complaining about pay".