Seán Ó Fearghaíl (Kildare South, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Chairman and the Minister for his outline. I am conscious that we are beginning a new process and, to a certain extent, all of us are finding our way in terms of that process. I do not know if any of the members would profess to be experts in the area of performance targets or indicators but the Minister's point, which is difficult to argue with, that there is no universally accepted metric for military capability is understandable. At the same time, given that military capability is at the centre of what the Minister's Department does, we would like to hear his view on the New Zealand guidance. Is it the correct way of setting out performance targets? That has been the basis for discussion already between the Minister's Department and committee secretariat staff. I would like to hear the Minister's view on that. First, is there an acceptance by the Minister and his Department that the New Zealand guidelines is the correct way to go? Second, would his Department have issues about the way the guidance has been applied to the performance measures? It is easy to measure performance in terms of capital spent but in the area of military capability, and perhaps in some other areas of activity, it is far more difficult. For example, the Minister alluded to the White Paper, and we commend him on all the work he has done in bringing that forward, but is the production of the White Paper an appropriate output measure to be considered or does it simply set a target and indicate a policy direction for the Department?