Mr. Aidan O'Driscoll:

I thank the Chairman and members of the committee for giving me the opportunity to appear today. I imagine I speak for all members of the commission when I say that the invitation is welcome indeed. I am joined by Mr. Cathal Duffy, the head of the secretariat to the commission. Many other members of the commission are watching online. We are all keen to hear the views of the members of the joint committee. Meeting with the committee is something the commission identified at the outset as a key element of our consultation process. I am genuinely pleased to have this opportunity to hear the views of the committee this afternoon and to outline to the work the commission has commenced. Please note that I will not be in a position today to indicate any commission findings or conclusions as our work is still at a relatively early stage.

The Government established the commission in December 2020 and has asked that we report by the end of this year. In establishing the commission, the Government appointed 15 members. They bring a great range of experience and expertise in key areas, including in senior management, human resources management, security policy, public and the diplomatic service as well as national and international military expertise.

As chairperson of the commission, I am fortunate to have such an extensive range of skills and experience among my fellow members. While a 15-member commission is quite large and presents its own challenges in the current environment where meetings must be held virtually, it is also something of a blessing in that it allows us to undertake work in a number of smaller subgroups in a way that still ensures a good diversity of expertise in each such group. The commission has an extensive agenda and, therefore, a busy schedule and programme of work. In broad terms, we see three phases to our work: first, issue identification; second, detailed analysis and consideration of the key issues identified; and, finally, agreeing conclusions and preparing our report. In this regard, this meeting seems well-timed because we are quite close to the end of the first phase of our work - the issue identification phase - and we are now embarking on a deeper dive into the analysis of the range of issues that we can most usefully deal with in our report. The production of our report with conclusions and recommendations will be the final phase of our work and I see that commencing in early autumn. In practice, these three phases of work are not rigid and will to some extent overlap with one another.

Members will, no doubt, have seen our terms of reference and I do not propose to go through these in great detail but I am keen to make some important points or clarifications. First, our terms of reference are quite extensive. In fact, they set out a challenging range of issues that we have been asked to address by the Government. There are aspects of our terms of reference that address immediate requirements, while others focus on the need to develop a longer term vision for the Defence Forces beyond 2030. Developing a longer term vision for the Defence Forces of the future is important given the dynamic changes and the pace of change in the security environment, including the emergence of new threats and new technologies and, of course, globally important issues such as climate change. In broad terms, we have been asked to consider the appropriate capabilities, structures and staffing needed for our Defence Forces in the immediate and long-term future. In doing so, we are to be guided by the national defence policy framework and to be cognisant of developments in the current security environment. I emphasise that the commission is future-focused but obviously starting from a realistic assessment of the current situation.

In developing our findings and recommendations, we are required to have regard to the level of funding provided by the Government for defence. Therefore, in accordance with our terms of reference, the commission is approaching its work against the backdrop of Ireland's existing defence policy, as laid down in the White Paper on Defence 2015 and the White Paper update of 2019. As such, fundamental issues such as Ireland's policy of military neutrality are outside our remit. Matters explicitly within our remit include issues around identifying and making recommendations on the capabilities and structures needed to ensure the Defence Forces remain agile, flexible and adaptive in the face of the changing defence and security environment, as well as ensuring they can continue to fulfil the roles assigned to them by government now and in future. We will look at the structure of each of the three services in the light of current experience and best practice in comparable countries.

In this, as in other work, we will draw on material from the projects being undertaken on foot of the White Paper on Defence and the high-level implementation process involving joint civil-military teams from the Department of Defence and the Defence Forces.

Our initial work on structures is focusing on issues that are cross-cutting for the Defence Forces as a whole, including overall command and control systems and the important concept of "jointness". The latter relates to the need for structures that facilitate a joint force approach across the traditional domains of land, air and maritime, as well as the newer domains of cyber and space. This is a significant focus in national defence strategies in many countries, especially in recent years. Beyond these structural issues, our work on capabilities will require us to consider how our Defence Forces are trained, resourced and equipped to undertake the tasks assigned to them by Government.

In regard to staffing and HR, I should draw the attention of the committee to the fact that the commission does not have a remit to consider rates of pay and allowances. The latter fall outside of its terms of reference. However, the commission is asked to examine the evolution of the remuneration systems and structures currently in place. I mentioned earlier that we are on the cusp of turning from issue identification to the analysis phase of our work. One of the issues that has emerged from the first phase of our work is the complexity of existing remuneration structures, particularly concerning allowances. This is an issue that a staff subgroup of the commission is looking at. This subgroup has a particularly busy programme of work facing it and I am pleased to say it has begun making good progress in sifting through the substantial number of issues that have emerged. These include issues concerning the working time directive, workforce planning, recruitment and retention, promotion, career planning and career progression, as well as issues of gender and diversity and much more. I do not think the commission will be able to address the range of staffing and HR issues that have been raised, but it will attempt to focus its consideration and recommendations on the issues on which it is felt the commission can be most impactful within its terms of reference.

I would like now to speak briefly to the commission's work on the Reverse Defence Force. As set out in its terms of reference, the commission will look at a wide range of issues in regard to the Reserve Defence Force. We aim to make specific recommendations intended to better leverage the capabilities of the Reserve. It is too early to say what those recommendations will be. The approach we are currently taking is that all subgroups of the commission, whether looking at capabilities, structures or staff, are tasked with addressing relevant issues in regard to the Reserve. Later in the summer, the intention is to draw all of this work together to ensure a clear and coherent set of recommendations on the Reserve.

From the outset, it had been the commission's intent to visit military installations across the country to engage candidly with the women and men of all ranks across the Defence Forces. Our ability to conduct these has been severely constrained by Covid restrictions. To date, only two visits have taken place, namely, to Cathal Brugha Barracks in Dublin and Casement Aerodrome in Baldonnel. Nevertheless, we continue to plan for, and look forward to carrying out, a more extensive programme of visits and meeting with as many personnel as possible in the coming months. As we did with Cathal Brugha Barracks and Casement Aerodrome, we will be actively encouraging staff of all ranks to speak their minds to better inform our work. Members of the commission and I were impressed with the quality of the people we met on the two visits and their very obvious dedication to and pride in the Defence Forces and the role they play in serving the people of this country. This has been genuinely inspiring for me and my colleagues. It makes us every more determined to do our work with the same level of commitment.

Another key element of our engagement is the public consultation process we launched in January. I am pleased to say that this has elicited a tremendous response, with over 520 submissions received, including some from members of this committee, which are very welcome. The secretariat to the commission is in the process of sorting through the submissions and members of the commission have begun reviewing the responses. We have decided that these submissions should be published on our website and this process will get under way in batches, commencing next month.

The past number of months have provided the commission with much food for thought. We have had a very intensive series of meetings with the Chief of Staff of the Defence Forces, the Secretary General and senior management teams of the Department of Defence and senior officers from the Army, Air Corps and Naval Service. We also had a very useful engagement with the Defence Forces senior NCO forum. We have also met with and listened to the views of the Defence Forces representative associations, permanent and Reserve, and we will engage further with these groups as our work progresses.

Two weeks ago, we held a webinar which, thanks to the Royal Irish Academy and the Institute for International and European Affairs, IIEA, provided an opportunity for experts from outside of the commission, Irish and from further afield, to give us their views. This proved extremely valuable. It was very interesting to have such a rich and informed debate on security and defence matters, something, I am sure, many here today will agree is often lacking in this country.

In all of our work to date, we have had tremendous support from our colleagues in the Department of Defence and the Defence Forces. This support has been freely and jointly given to the commission by the two sides of the defence organisation. I take this opportunity to record my gratitude to the Secretary General, the Chief of Staff and their colleagues for this assistance. We will continue to engage with the Department and the Defence Forces as we proceed with our work, but our conclusions and recommendations will be arrived at independently by the commission.

The commission has done a lot of listening and reading over the past four months and we will do some more listening this afternoon. As I mentioned, we are moving into the analysis phase of our work. As we do so, it will be very helpful to us to have the views and advice of members of this committee who, I am sure, have also been hearing a lot about the issues with which the commission must grapple in the months ahead. I look forward to hearing and taking on board the perspectives of members and I am happy to take any questions they may have regarding the commission's approach to this important task.