Dr. Mark Mellett:

In fairness to the commission, it has been normalised because other heads of agencies have been before it. I presume members of the HSE hierarchy went before the Public Service Pay Commission. I am not too sure. It is not a plea. It is a development and a statement of facts and perspectives in the context of the challenging environment in which Defence Forces' men and women deliver services at home and abroad. I am uniquely competent to be able to do that.

With regard to the retention policy, I mentioned earlier that we set out the climate survey action plan which had 54 items on it. It is a document that is open for management within the Defence Forces and concerns what is happening in various areas. Every time I go to meet the troops, whether a formal visit with their command team or in a town hall, I set out where we are in terms of the various initiatives with regard to retention within the Defence Forces. Some of those are still questions I am pursuing in the context of the issue of the contracts and the White Paper projects relating to retention. That is the development of terms and conditions that allow us to extend personnel and services in a manner whereby we will retain the maximum number.

The issue of the cyberdefence of the State obviously involves the Defence Forces. We have contributed significantly to the Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment as some former members have moved across there. For a period we had a number of personnel who were seconded there to support the centre. My priority is to watch my networks to ensure I can provide cyberincident response teams to ensure our networks are protected because if our networks are vulnerable or attacked, my capacity to have the coherence to deliver defence, security and Government services will be undermined. My priority is to look at protection within the Defence Forces. We have a very highly functioning critical cyberincident response team process. I am ready and open to opportunities that could come in the future in the context of broadening the Defence Forces but that would have to be driven within a policy framework that would, in the first instance, be established by the Minister and the Department.