Mr. Justice Alan Mahon:

That is an interesting question. I do not have the answer to it. There was a process before my Act where individuals could bring their complaints to the Minister. In fact, I think part of the idea behind the creation of the Office of the Ombudsman for the Defence Forces was to create a separate independent means of dealing with appeals from the section 114 internal investigation process. I imagine the type of claims that now come to the ombudsman would have gone directly to the Minister before 2005. That is probably the answer to that question.