John Brady (Wicklow, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Chief of Staff before the committee this afternoon and his colleagues also. I want to express my condolences to him and all members of the Defence Forces on the death of Seán Rooney. It was a tragic incident. I express our gratitude to him and our condolences to all members of the Defence Forces and to his friends and family.

Before I ask some more general questions, I have a specific one for Lieutenant General Clancy from my engagement with the representative organisations such as PDFORRA and RACO and the Reserve Defence Force Representative Association. Given the fact that we have an ongoing inability to put ships to sea; the ongoing investigation into the sexual abuse allegations; the fact that the Reserve Defence Force is on the brink of collapse, as it has been put to me; and the ongoing recruitment and retention issues in the broader Defence Forces, where does the Chief of Staff see morale within the Defence Forces? Certainly from any engagement I have, morale seems to be at an all-time low.

Central to fixing many of the issues around retention and recruitment, as the Chief of Staff noted in his opening statement, is the working time directive. That would be echoed by the representative bodies as well. In the high-level action plan that was published last year, one of the actions that was deemed to be among the low-hanging fruit was the heads of a Bill for the working time directive, which were supposed to be brought forward within six months. We have now passed that. In his contribution, the Chief of Staff talked about the appropriate implementation of the working time directive. When we ask the Minister, he talks about exemptions as opposed to the full implementation. What does the Chief of Staff see as the appropriate implementation? There is major concern that what is actually going to be delivered on paper will be meaningless because it will be riddled with so many exemptions.

On the Reserve Defence Force, I welcome the office of Reserve affairs. Given the ongoing crisis within the Reserve, I have asked the Minister countless times about immediate actions that need to be taken around recruitment. There seems to be a major crisis there, as has been referenced by the representative body. In the last recruitment round in March last year, 1,000 citizens expressed an interest, 1,000 applications came in online and the online portal had to be shut down because they did not have the resources to manage it. However, out of that only about 90 personnel were eventually recruited into the Reserve.A litany of failures led to that, from medicals to failing to contact people in time. Is there an immediate action that is going to be taken to address that? Clearly there are people who want to be proud members of the Reserve Defence Force. What is an immediate action that the Reserve affairs office is going to take?

What is the Chief of Staff's view on the future of Cathal Brugha Barracks? There is a review and consultants are in the process of being appointed. We know the strategic importance of having an operational military barracks in the capital close to Government Buildings and other critical infrastructure. What is his view on the future of Cathal Brugha Barracks from a defence and military perspective and in terms of the critical importance of having an operational barracks in a city centre location?

On the ongoing crisis in the Naval Service, we have two ships, the LÉ Róisín and the LÉ Niamh, tied up. There is an inability to carry out sea days because of the massive crisis within the Naval Service. We know the strategic importance for security and defence of having ships at sea whether it is for the interception of drugs, acting as a deterrent, policing our fisheries or in respect of the undersea cables. Given the horrific time we are living in, the major threat of hybrid warfare and cyber warfare, and noting the previous military exercise being carried out by the Russians, many would see Ireland now as the Achilles heel in terms of security for Europe and particularly for those critical transatlantic data cables. Would the Chief of Staff see us as an Achilles heel, given that we cannot put ships to sea? What is his view? Many nations are now saying so. I believe it is putting our military neutrality in jeopardy. Other countries are actively talking about coming in, as they have done previously, to police our waters. Does the Chief of Staff see it as an ongoing risk to our militarily neutral status?

On the figure of 11,500 in level-of-ambition 2, what are the views of the Chief of Staff on that? There seems to be a creeping narrative around the civilianisation of our Defence Forces. It is now being suggested that the 11,500 will also include civilian contractors working for the Defence Forces. The Minister has already spoken about outside medics coming in to carry out medical assessments for recruitment as opposed to dealing with the chronic shortage of trained military personnel to carry that out, military doctors and so on. What are the Chief of Staff's views on what I see as a growing civilianisation of military roles that have been carried out proudly over many years? I believe there is a minor role for civilian contractors but given the failure to address the recruitment and retention issue, bringing in civilians is a shortsighted measure.

We are in the midst of a housing crisis right across the State. Many people would be critical of the fact that in the Curragh, for example, there are many houses boarded up that would have been formerly used by members of the Defence Forces. What does the Chief of Staff think should happen to those houses? How should they be utilised?

I wish to make a final point. The decision to withdraw from UNDOF was wrong. What led to that decision being made. It is fairly obvious that the recruitment and retention crisis was the main impetus behind the decision. Why was that decision made by the Tánaiste and the Minister? Was it a direct consequence of signing up for an EU battle group, which will involve a two-year commitment that will tie up a large number of our Defence Forces personnel? The Chief of Staff proudly outlined our ongoing and unbroken record of partaking in peacekeeping missions. We know that this was a political decision. We amass soft power from our involvement in UN peacekeeping missions. Further involvement in EU and other battle groups will jeopardise our military neutrality. Withdrawing from peacekeeping missions in order to sign up to battle groups is the wrong decision. What are the Chief of Staff's views as to why our involvement in the UNDOF mission was ended?