Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Legislation on the Defence Forces, in general, being debated in this House is a rare occurrence. I cannot recall many occasions when the time of the House has been occupied by this issue, and maybe that will give us an indication it is an area of public policy that has not been focused on enough over the years. It goes to the heart of why the Defence Forces are so undermanned at the moment. We simply cannot recruit enough and those we are recruiting we cannot retain, and we have not paid enough attention to that.

Most of us in this House thought a fundamental change had happened and that the tremendous pride most citizens have in our Defence Forces, which represent us magnificently in peacekeeping duties across the globe and at home on all State occasions, might finally be recognised when we set up a Commission on the Defence Forces, which reported in February of last year. This comprehensive report was debated in this House and we were promised that a swathe of action would follow it up.

That action was to be multifaceted and to involve structured and fundamental change, underpinned by legislation. This is the first legislation that we have seen. I wonder why we only have the first legislation now after such a long period. The prescription has been laid out and accepted in the commission report that was endorsed by this House. We were able to deal with issues like Brexit with a comprehensive package of legislation going through the House. I would have thought the urgency that we all ascribed to reform and support for the Defence Forces might have resulted in comprehensive legislation.

Finally, we have the first legislation before us now and we begin to implement, in legislative terms, the recommendations of the commission. The Government proposes to provide for a new external oversight body for the Defence Forces to be given the trip-off-the-tongue title of "Comhlacht Formhaoirsithe Seachtrach Óglaigh na hÉireann".

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