Call for urgent reform as father of fallen Dundalk soldier denied army pension support

Efforts must be made at the Department of Defence to ensure that the father of Dundalk soldier Michael McNeela can receive the army pension given to his late wife in recognition of their son’s death, Louth TD Ruairí Ó Murchú has said.

Michael McNeela was just 21 when he was killed in Lebanon in 1989 while on his second tour of duty for the UN.

His father, John McNeela who is 84, told the Sunday Times and RTE’s This Week show at the weekend that the refusal by the Defence Department to allow him to continue to collect the small monthly allowance given to his late wife, Kathleen, under the Army Pensions Act, has left him ‘poor’.

The case was raised with Tanaiste and Minister for Defence Simon Harris by the Dundalk Sinn Féin TD after he was contacted by Mr McNeela, but Minister Harris said the legislation does not provide for the transfer of the pension, worth just €342 per month, to Mr McNeela.

Deputy Ó Murchú said the legislation which governs pensions given to the families of Defence Forces members who are killed on duty, is 80 years old and needs to be changed and updated.

He said the McNeela case was ‘extremely rare’ and pleaded with the government to allow Mr McNeela to get the pension.

Deputy Ó Murchú said he had started the process of drafting legislation to amend the anomaly but wants the government to make an interim payment for the Dundalk father, as has happened in the past with other uniformed services.

Mr McNeela said: “Not having access to this allowance is leaving me poor. It is only a pittance to the army or the government, what I would be getting. And after all, he was my son too.”

He said the allowance from the Defence Forces let him run a car and without it, he would struggle to live independently as he sometimes has difficulty walking and added that he ‘felt let down by the State’.

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In response to the McNeela case, the Department of Defence said it “treats any case involving a deceased soldier with the utmost of sensitivity.

“In this specific case, under the current law, the Army Pensions Act, there is no provision to transfer a dependant’s allowance to another person, at any stage.

“The secretary-general of the Department of Defence will this week raise this case with her colleagues in the Department of Social Protection to see what other supports may be available to Mr McNeela.

“Like all families of deceased soldiers, we will do all we can to support them.”