Gerard Craughwell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

The Minister of State is decent and hardworking, and I regret he is here. This is nothing personal and I hope he accepts what I say as a professional observation. We have a Minister for Defence and a Minister of State with responsibility for EU Affairs and Defence. While I accept that the Minister for Defence is out of the country, it is outrageous that the Minister of State is not available. I understand the Minister of State has been told she has defence in her portfolio in name only, and she should not engage in any direct work in the area of defence. As far as I recall that is straight from the Taoiseach on the floor of the Dáil.

It is deeply concerning that members of the Department of Defence are signing memorandums of understanding with no uniformed military personnel present when they are signed. The Romanian side had uniformed personnel there. This cuts to the heart of the relationship that exists between the military and the Department of Defence. The Department of Defence is responsible for advising the Minister on policy matters. However, there is no statutory obligation on the Department to have any input from the Defence Forces when it comes to policy matters. It is more of a grace and favour relationship. They can come along if invited but should otherwise mind their own business and stay out of it. It is outrageous that we, Members of the Oireachtas, learned of this memorandum of understanding on Twitter and were not advised in advance. Things have moved on since I put in an FOI request and tabled this Commencement matter. Yesterday the foreign affairs and defence committee considered this matter and contacted the Department asking it to provide a copy of the memorandum of understanding to the defence committee. There is a serious problem, and I really am sorry because this is not the Minister of State's area of responsibility. He has enough on his plate besides coming up here listening to me but there is a serious issue with oversight of what goes on in this country at departmental level. It is outrageous that the Department of Defence would sign a memorandum of understanding on what we are told are defence matters without members of the Defence Forces being present. We are unsure what the memorandum of understanding was. It never came before the Oireachtas joint committee for scrutiny before it was signed. We have no idea what is involved in it, and I think the Minister of State will agree with me that he would want the Oireachtas joint committee to have oversight of anything that was going on in the defence or foreign affairs areas.

From that point of view I am sorry the Minister of State is in the chair today. I am sorry that events yesterday moved on beyond this question, and that the defence committee has expressed its concern and wants to see the memorandum of understanding. I trust the Minister of State accepts I did not want to waste his time this morning by addressing this issue after the decision was made yesterday. However, I think we have to put on the record of this House our displeasure at the fact that policy is being developed by people who are not military and have no defence background whatsoever. With all due respect to the Secretary General of the Department, who I am sure is an extremely able person, she does not have defence in her background. She is a banker by profession. Who should be providing defence policy other than people in defence? We have to look at a statutory obligation to have the Defence Forces involved in policy.I will leave it at that. I thank the Minister of State.