Support from readers like you keeps The Journal open.
You are visiting us because we have something you value. Independent, unbiased news that tells the truth. Advertising revenue goes some way to support our mission, but this year it has not been enough.
If you've seen value in our reporting, please contribute what you can, so we can continue to produce accurate and meaningful journalism. For everyone who needs it.
SIMON COVENEY HAS given the go-ahead for PDFORRA (Permanent Defence Force Other Ranks Representative Association), the association which represents 6,500 enlisted members of the Army, Navy and Air Corps, to become an associate member of ICTU.
The body has said it welcomes “the historic agreement of the Minister for Defence to … allow PDFORRA the right of association with the Irish Congress of Trade Unions on a temporary basis pending the amendment of the Defence Amendment Act 1990″.
According to the laws contained in the Defence Amendment Act 1990, Raco (the Representative Association of Commissioned Officers) and PDFORRA, which represents rank and file soldiers, aircrew and sailors, cannot be “associated with or affiliated to any trade union or any other body”.
Minister Coveney said that the government is aware of the “longstanding desire” of the body to associate with the union, adding “I am also cognisant of the concerns of military management and I have taken legal advice on the issue.”
Gerard Guinan, current General Secretary of PDFORRA said today in a statement that: “The consent of the Minister to our Association is extremely welcome. PDFORRA has campaigned extensively to be permitted to associate with ICTU and had undertaken a number of actions through the European Institutions and had also initiated court action. Thankfully, this appears unnecessary at this juncture.”
Mark Keane, President of PDFORRA, said today that the group is looking forward to “engaging with officials from ICTU in the coming weeks as pay talks commence. The association has no doubt that it will make a positive contribution to trade unionism in the years to come.
Advertisement
In April, officers from RACO voted overwhelmingly in favour of membership of the ICTU.
“The goal of the Representative Associations of associate membership of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU), is for the strict purpose of involvement in central pay negotiations. This has been stated to me by PDFORRA in particular, but also by RACO, on a number of occasions,” said Coveney in a statement today.
As previously reported by The Journal, the Irish Defence Forces are in a staffing crisis. RACO has said poor pay and conditions are to blame for the crisis and that lack of respect for the armed forces within the Government is a contributing factor.
The group’s General Secretary at the time, Conor King, had said that Raco’s membership had “lost faith” in the pay negotiation process.
“Three successive rounds of pay talks have seen our members marginalised and excluded from fair process as a result of our weakened industrial relations status.
“Members have lost faith in the ability of the parallel process to recognise and compensate for the unique restrictions of Defence Forces service.
“This, coupled with the deliberate weakening of the Conciliation and Arbitration Scheme by the official side, has resulted in our members seeking a new approach to pay negotiations,” he said at the time.
Readers like you are keeping these stories free for everyone...
A mix of advertising and supporting contributions helps keep paywalls away from valuable information like this article.
Over 5,000 readers like you have already stepped up and support us with a monthly payment or a once-off donation.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
Close
5 Comments
This is YOUR comments community. Stay civil, stay constructive, stay on topic.
Please familiarise yourself with our comments policy
here
before taking part.
Spare a thought for atheists this Christmas. Can’t be easy for them watching everyone else having a ball, hugging each other, family reunions, eating mince pies and generally exuding an air of peace and goodwill to all men.
If there’s an atheist in your neighbourhood drop a card in their letterbox to let them know they’re not alone this Christmas and hopefully they’ll glimpse a little bit of light in their lives before they go to hell.
@Tommy Haze: Wishing people to go to hell contradicts the Christmas spirit. It‘s supposed to be all about love, kindness, forgiveness and caring for each other. I am agnostic.
@Tommy Haze: atheists can still celebrate an old European cultural tradition. Born from religion, but installed in a lot of people’s minds as more of a tradition than a religious feast.
Unbridled consumerism (which is what Christmas has become in our societies) is probably not something the founders of Christianism would have approved of
@Tommy Haze: I’m an atheist, doesn’t stop me from eating mince pies, drinking egg nog and having a merry old time. All these pursuits are nothing to do with Christ or Christmas but rather are the invention of tawdry rip off merchants cashing in. Glad to see you enjoy these things in the true “Christian spirit”!!
@Jimmy Wallace:
LoL … Still biting ? You took that one hook, line and sinker ! Like taking candy from a child … Nobody needs to be put straight by you. I’m laughing at you, you’re a gullible clown. LoL
@Regular John: Falling for obvious bait being slightly less embarrassing than someone over the age of 15 trying to wind people up online. Any attention is good attention when you don’t get any in real life though, I suppose
@Tommy Haze: I fear hell as much as you fear valhalla. Atheists celetrate Xmas as well btw. We just drop some of the Fairytales and leave it at Santa and the elves.
@Megan Ward:
I didn’t wind anyone up, someone else did, save your insults for them. I’m just laughing at all these self proclaimed “atheists” getting all bent out of shape by it. I don’t think it was that obvious to some of them !
@Regular John: Yes I’m aware, I am able to differentiate between different ‘names’, I was responding to your comment that laughs at the poor eejit who can’t recognise bait but doesn’t make any mention of the one throwing the bait being sad.
“Atheists” so I presume we’re going to start calling everyone ‘self-proclaimed “Catholics”‘, ‘self-proclaimed “Muslims”‘, ‘self-proclaimed “Protestants”‘, etc? Just to keep up the use of redundant quotation marks :)
@Jimmy Wallace:
You think I’m a God botherer ?LOL… You still don’t get it ! Oh man, you would swallow a brick. I can honestly say you are the most gullible person on here !
Christmas is about family, friends, happiness, good cheer, the kids & santa – I don’t associate it with religion. The tree, it’s assembly and decoration I associate with a bottle of chardonnay, kindly gifted by a friend a little closer to Christmas than now.
@brian o’leary: Clearly your bells haven’t been jingled in a while dear. Get them out, blow the dust off them and mind you don’t damage them on the pine needles.
@I can see clearly now: I wasn’t being critical, just suggesting to each their own. If people want to be religious, or buy lots of presents , that’s up to them. Your Christmas sounds pretty good BTW, except for the chardonnay…. I’m a sauvignon blanc man myself.
Usually they put up around the 8th Dec. This year it’ll be the 15th Dec. Always taken down on the 7th January. Although one year when I was a student we took the decorations down two days after Paddy’s Day.
@brian o’leary: Someone who believes that Christian doctrine is rubbish. Agnostic is more of a ‘not sure’ category. You could celebrate Yule which is what was around before people who worshipped the land were told this place was a landfill by comparison to ‘heaven’ where when you die you meet your rellies (only the ones you like) and have a whale of a time for eternity… however long that is, lol.
Christmas trees are lovely, but is there any update on the condition of the five-year-old girl who had her throat slashed on Thursday afternoon? Is she even still alive?
@Jimmy Wallace: Put down the pipe there, gorge – if you can use this comments section to cynically question people’s belief in god, then I can use it to ask other important questions.
@Tríona Commode:
Go easy on him Tríona, he’s been very upset by a comment above winding up the atheists. He’s obviously a very delicate little flower. LOL.
As regards the young girl that was attacked, I didn’t see anything about her condition today. Hopefully no news is good news and she pulls through.
@Quinn: ‘The modern Christmas tree originated in Germany, where families set up a paradise tree in their homes on December 24, the religious feast day of Adam and Eve. They hung wafers on it (symbolizing the Eucharistic host, the Christian sign of redemption).’
What fascinates me is the story of how the wee man himself was born in a manger,as there was no room at the inn. It beggars belief how they expected to find anywhere to stay anyway,as hardly anywhere is open at Christmas.
Tradition in our house is, it goes up after the Toy show. It’s up and it’s flashing away. The two cats are in it most of the day. Everyone to their own. I feel it is comforting
People put decorations up way to early. Getting earlier every year. Christmas not same as was when I was growing up ment more than buying stuff dont need. Heck people may go mass but dont bother rest year .
Man arrested after ecstasy tablets worth €235,000 seized in Co Monaghan
7 mins ago
1
FOREST FEST FOUNDER
'A music industry on their knees': Organiser says smaller festivals need government support
46 mins ago
1.4k
RIP
Wrestling star Hulk Hogan has died aged 71
Updated
24 Jul
41.8k
119
Your Cookies. Your Choice.
Cookies help provide our news service while also enabling the advertising needed to fund this work.
We categorise cookies as Necessary, Performance (used to analyse the site performance) and Targeting (used to target advertising which helps us keep this service free).
We and our 210 partners store and access personal data, like browsing data or unique identifiers, on your device. Selecting Accept All enables tracking technologies to support the purposes shown under we and our partners process data to provide. If trackers are disabled, some content and ads you see may not be as relevant to you. You can resurface this menu to change your choices or withdraw consent at any time by clicking the Cookie Preferences link on the bottom of the webpage . Your choices will have effect within our Website. For more details, refer to our Privacy Policy.
We and our vendors process data for the following purposes:
Use precise geolocation data. Actively scan device characteristics for identification. Store and/or access information on a device. Personalised advertising and content, advertising and content measurement, audience research and services development.
Cookies Preference Centre
We process your data to deliver content or advertisements and measure the delivery of such content or advertisements to extract insights about our website. We share this information with our partners on the basis of consent. You may exercise your right to consent, based on a specific purpose below or at a partner level in the link under each purpose. Some vendors may process your data based on their legitimate interests, which does not require your consent. You cannot object to tracking technologies placed to ensure security, prevent fraud, fix errors, or deliver and present advertising and content, and precise geolocation data and active scanning of device characteristics for identification may be used to support this purpose. This exception does not apply to targeted advertising. These choices will be signaled to our vendors participating in the Transparency and Consent Framework. The choices you make regarding the purposes and vendors listed in this notice are saved and stored locally on your device for a maximum duration of 1 year.
Manage Consent Preferences
Necessary Cookies
Always Active
These cookies are necessary for the website to function and cannot be switched off in our systems. They are usually only set in response to actions made by you which amount to a request for services, such as setting your privacy preferences, logging in or filling in forms. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not then work.
Social Media Cookies
These cookies are set by a range of social media services that we have added to the site to enable you to share our content with your friends and networks. They are capable of tracking your browser across other sites and building up a profile of your interests. This may impact the content and messages you see on other websites you visit. If you do not allow these cookies you may not be able to use or see these sharing tools.
Targeting Cookies
These cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.
Functional Cookies
These cookies enable the website to provide enhanced functionality and personalisation. They may be set by us or by third party providers whose services we have added to our pages. If you do not allow these cookies then these services may not function properly.
Performance Cookies
These cookies allow us to count visits and traffic sources so we can measure and improve the performance of our site. They help us to know which pages are the most and least popular and see how visitors move around the site. All information these cookies collect is aggregated and therefore anonymous. If you do not allow these cookies we will not be able to monitor our performance.
Store and/or access information on a device 148 partners can use this purpose
Cookies, device or similar online identifiers (e.g. login-based identifiers, randomly assigned identifiers, network based identifiers) together with other information (e.g. browser type and information, language, screen size, supported technologies etc.) can be stored or read on your device to recognise it each time it connects to an app or to a website, for one or several of the purposes presented here.
Personalised advertising and content, advertising and content measurement, audience research and services development 191 partners can use this purpose
Use limited data to select advertising 154 partners can use this purpose
Advertising presented to you on this service can be based on limited data, such as the website or app you are using, your non-precise location, your device type or which content you are (or have been) interacting with (for example, to limit the number of times an ad is presented to you).
Create profiles for personalised advertising 117 partners can use this purpose
Information about your activity on this service (such as forms you submit, content you look at) can be stored and combined with other information about you (for example, information from your previous activity on this service and other websites or apps) or similar users. This is then used to build or improve a profile about you (that might include possible interests and personal aspects). Your profile can be used (also later) to present advertising that appears more relevant based on your possible interests by this and other entities.
Use profiles to select personalised advertising 117 partners can use this purpose
Advertising presented to you on this service can be based on your advertising profiles, which can reflect your activity on this service or other websites or apps (like the forms you submit, content you look at), possible interests and personal aspects.
Create profiles to personalise content 50 partners can use this purpose
Information about your activity on this service (for instance, forms you submit, non-advertising content you look at) can be stored and combined with other information about you (such as your previous activity on this service or other websites or apps) or similar users. This is then used to build or improve a profile about you (which might for example include possible interests and personal aspects). Your profile can be used (also later) to present content that appears more relevant based on your possible interests, such as by adapting the order in which content is shown to you, so that it is even easier for you to find content that matches your interests.
Use profiles to select personalised content 47 partners can use this purpose
Content presented to you on this service can be based on your content personalisation profiles, which can reflect your activity on this or other services (for instance, the forms you submit, content you look at), possible interests and personal aspects. This can for example be used to adapt the order in which content is shown to you, so that it is even easier for you to find (non-advertising) content that matches your interests.
Measure advertising performance 173 partners can use this purpose
Information regarding which advertising is presented to you and how you interact with it can be used to determine how well an advert has worked for you or other users and whether the goals of the advertising were reached. For instance, whether you saw an ad, whether you clicked on it, whether it led you to buy a product or visit a website, etc. This is very helpful to understand the relevance of advertising campaigns.
Measure content performance 77 partners can use this purpose
Information regarding which content is presented to you and how you interact with it can be used to determine whether the (non-advertising) content e.g. reached its intended audience and matched your interests. For instance, whether you read an article, watch a video, listen to a podcast or look at a product description, how long you spent on this service and the web pages you visit etc. This is very helpful to understand the relevance of (non-advertising) content that is shown to you.
Understand audiences through statistics or combinations of data from different sources 108 partners can use this purpose
Reports can be generated based on the combination of data sets (like user profiles, statistics, market research, analytics data) regarding your interactions and those of other users with advertising or (non-advertising) content to identify common characteristics (for instance, to determine which target audiences are more receptive to an ad campaign or to certain contents).
Develop and improve services 113 partners can use this purpose
Information about your activity on this service, such as your interaction with ads or content, can be very helpful to improve products and services and to build new products and services based on user interactions, the type of audience, etc. This specific purpose does not include the development or improvement of user profiles and identifiers.
Use limited data to select content 49 partners can use this purpose
Content presented to you on this service can be based on limited data, such as the website or app you are using, your non-precise location, your device type, or which content you are (or have been) interacting with (for example, to limit the number of times a video or an article is presented to you).
Use precise geolocation data 64 partners can use this special feature
With your acceptance, your precise location (within a radius of less than 500 metres) may be used in support of the purposes explained in this notice.
Actively scan device characteristics for identification 36 partners can use this special feature
With your acceptance, certain characteristics specific to your device might be requested and used to distinguish it from other devices (such as the installed fonts or plugins, the resolution of your screen) in support of the purposes explained in this notice.
Ensure security, prevent and detect fraud, and fix errors 119 partners can use this special purpose
Always Active
Your data can be used to monitor for and prevent unusual and possibly fraudulent activity (for example, regarding advertising, ad clicks by bots), and ensure systems and processes work properly and securely. It can also be used to correct any problems you, the publisher or the advertiser may encounter in the delivery of content and ads and in your interaction with them.
Deliver and present advertising and content 123 partners can use this special purpose
Always Active
Certain information (like an IP address or device capabilities) is used to ensure the technical compatibility of the content or advertising, and to facilitate the transmission of the content or ad to your device.
Match and combine data from other data sources 92 partners can use this feature
Always Active
Information about your activity on this service may be matched and combined with other information relating to you and originating from various sources (for instance your activity on a separate online service, your use of a loyalty card in-store, or your answers to a survey), in support of the purposes explained in this notice.
Link different devices 65 partners can use this feature
Always Active
In support of the purposes explained in this notice, your device might be considered as likely linked to other devices that belong to you or your household (for instance because you are logged in to the same service on both your phone and your computer, or because you may use the same Internet connection on both devices).
Identify devices based on information transmitted automatically 113 partners can use this feature
Always Active
Your device might be distinguished from other devices based on information it automatically sends when accessing the Internet (for instance, the IP address of your Internet connection or the type of browser you are using) in support of the purposes exposed in this notice.
Save and communicate privacy choices 100 partners can use this special purpose
Always Active
The choices you make regarding the purposes and entities listed in this notice are saved and made available to those entities in the form of digital signals (such as a string of characters). This is necessary in order to enable both this service and those entities to respect such choices.
have your say