Tom Clonan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

Gabhaim buíochas leis an Aire Stáit. Our concern is that there does not appear to be any record of Ireland availing of either of these funds. I accept that many cases are litigated here, but that places of veterans under a very stressful situation where they have to go into an adversarial process. In addition, the State has very deep pockets to fight people who have PTSD or who have lost function in other ways as a result of accidents. This is an opportunity for us to recognise fully the prevalence of combat stress reaction as a phenomenon in the workplace of Irish troops overseas and the ubiquity and commonplace nature of PTSD among troops. It would be really useful if we could facilitate a non-adversarial way of dealing with these through the Department of Defence. I might ask the Minister of State for a favour. I hope he will not take this the wrong way. I was hoping that the Tánaiste and Minister for Defence would be here because I know that veterans' groups, such as the one led by Sergeant Clarke, who has dedicated so much of his life to helping veterans and their families, would really like to have a meeting with him. I had hoped that, if he were taking this matter today, we might have been able to ambush him, to use that military term, outside the Chamber, but the Minister of State might prevail upon him the need to meet the veterans' groups, or me or Paul Clarke, to go through this. There is a pre-existing fund - I do not think it has been harnessed properly - that could give us a non-adversarial way of supporting families who deal with these issues, especially after their public service in the cause of peace.