Mr. Se?n Clancy:

A supplementary question was raised on the vacancies in the non-commissioned officer, NCO, rank and how that contributed to some of the issues that have been raised. The vacancies in the NCO rank are relatively new, even though they are there for a while, in terms of the timeframes I captured with Senator Clonan. I do not think it is influential in terms of the maintenance of discipline and good order that has broken down so badly during the timeframes referred to. I do not think we can make a direct association. That is my initial reflection on that.

On the veterans' associations, we have three fully recognised veterans' associations, the Irish United Nations Veterans Association, IUNVA, the Óglaigh Náisiúnta na hÉireann, ONE, and the Association of Retired Commissioned Officers, ARCO, which do an exceptional job in terms of representation at the appropriate level for the organisation as a whole and I am quite satisfied in that space.

There is no revision of requirements of our sub-surface capabilities. I am not aware of any revision of our sub-surface capabilities or requirements n the equipment development plan and the ongoing consideration of all our capabilities other than those we are already aware of and the gapping we have around that space, in particular.

On the pension discussions, again pensions are something that were decided upon by policy and by Government and it is not for me to make a judgment or give an opinion and I refrain from doing so. The mandatory retirement age referred to is something that is of course under consideration. When we look across the broader uniform services of the State, such as An Garda Síochána, the mandatory retirement age is 60. That is a fact. When we look at the Prison Service, despite having I think 38 or even a larger number of grades within the service for whom the mandatory retirement age is 60. When we look at the Fire Service, and the number of grades they have, the mandatory retirement age is 55. The Defence Forces have differing mandatory retirement ages across all grades. As Deputy Berry alluded to, this was put in place in the 1990s, 30 years ago, at a bespoke level for reasons perhaps around bringing down the age profile of the organisation, and creating a fitter, more modern force at that point in time. Therefore, these are the facts surrounding the mandatory retirement ages and I recognise the challenges they cause internally for the organisation as a barrier to retention.

The army ranger wing, ARW, allowance is under arbitration at this point so that says enough. I have spoken about the EU battle group and the cultural issues. On the broader cultural issues, I know points were raised on these issues. I have acknowledged them and I also want to give a degree of comfort, if it is comfort, because one cannot give comfort in this area and I am very conscious language is very important, as was rightly said. We have taken lessons from other militaries and we have brought in the likes of the Rape Crisis Centre to help us to understand, to give us confidence, to brief us, and to help with our understanding around equality and the issues involved in that. I wanted to put that on the record to this committee. We have not stood still in our timeline since I have taken office. We have created the conditions where we have stepped out and had immediate response teams at that time. We extended INSPIRE, our helpline service, to the wider Defence Forces, their families and to veterans as well, to create a helpline for people. We also set up, with the Department of Defence and the then Minister, a confidential contact person. I also stood up an organisational cultural standing committee which is a diverse committee, in terms of gender and rank, and is headed by my assistant chief of staff to bring about immediate changes in terms of response. An example of that in terms of our internal culture at the moment is when we looked to other organisations and at the whole question of sexual ethics, responsible relationships, and the training required around that, there was a gap and a deficit that was badly needed to be filled in our organisation. We have piloted that and we recognised we needed external instruction and support to deliver that internally in the organisation, which we have gone to tender on. We hope to stand that up with five instructors from external sources to be delivered to the organisation as a whole. These are just a sample, a flavour, of some of the changes around the cultural space and the actions we have taken.

Like the committee members, I am waiting for the independent review group, IRG, report to come and, honestly, I have no doubt it will be stark. I am under no illusions about that, as the committee members are not. My eyes are wide open as to the review on staff and I have never shirked from my views on this space and I have been very open about it. When it comes, I will engage with all stakeholders. I have given the commitment in writing to the Tánaiste and Minister for Defence, Deputy Micheál Martin, that I will engage with all recommendations that he accepts from that report. We will get on with it and be forceful about implementation, and I can assure committee members of that. It can be taken from that there will not be any push-back from my position in terms of transformation of our culture. Optimistic is the wrong word to use but I am very engaged to ensure we achieve transformation in this space and we have already made some progress and see some grass shoots in that space in terms of complaints received, which I see as a positive, bystanders taking action and so on and so forth. There are clear examples of that. In terms of people moving through the liaison process from an internal disciplinary process to an external Garda Síochána reporting process, we have seen many examples of that in the organisation. I welcome all of that because it shows signs of a maturity happening within the organisation in terms of acceptance and I can only change that.

Deputy Clarke asked about international protection, IPs, the responsibility for which falls primarily on the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth. We were asked by other Departments to provide support by providing tentage etc. into Collins Barracks, and the relevant engineering supports. We have no role other than that and the fact it is a former Army barracks is just part of it. The role of the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth standing up and their responsibilities for-----