Ms Julie Sinnamon:

As independent chair of the IOG for the Commission on the Defence Forces, I thank the committee for inviting me to address it. It is a welcome opportunity to share the progress that has been made to date regarding the implementation of the report of the Commission on the Defence Forces as approved by Government, and I look forward to hearing the contributions of committee members. I am joined by Mr. Murtagh, one of the Department of Defence members of the committee, and Mr. Byrne, who is involved with the implementation management office. The latter provides the secretariat function to the IOG.

I have held the position of independent chair of the IOG since last November. In total, the group has met six times. The most recent meeting took place last Thursday, 25 May. In my role as independent chair of the IOG, I ensure that the group meets regularly, reviews progress reports, oversees and provides input into the development of the detailed implementation plan for the Commission on the Defence Forces and reports into the high-level steering group. The IOG benefits greatly from the wealth of experience and expertise of its members, who are drawn from within the Department of Defence, the Defence Forces and across a number of Departments at assistant secretary general level or military equivalent. The IOG meetings provide an excellent opportunity for members to provide input on specific recommendations from their Department’s perspective, and on the development of the detailed implementation plan in general. To date, the focus of the IOG has been the overseeing and driving of progress in the implementation of the 38 early actions set out in the high-level action plan for the report of the Commission on the Defence Forces, much of which has involved putting in place the foundations and structures to support the proposed transformative change.

As members will be aware, the independent review group on dignity and equality issues in the Defence Forces published its report on 28 March. The Government agreed to establish an external oversight body of the Defence Forces, on a non-statutory basis initially, in line with one of the 13 recommendations in the report. The Tánaiste has set out his view that the immediate establishment of this external oversight body is a critical element to driving the necessary culture change throughout the Defence Forces and increasing transparency and accountability. While my appearance today is in my capacity as the independent chair of the IOG for the Commission on the Defence Forces, I have also been appointed as a member of this external oversight body.

Before going into further detail regarding our progress to date, I take this opportunity to provide context to the role of the IOG and its work to date relating to the Commission on the Defence Forces. As members are all aware, the establishment of a Commission on the Defence Forces was a commitment in the programme for Government. In December 2020, the Government authorised the establishment of the commission and agreed its terms of reference and membership. The terms of reference covered the structures and size of the Defence Forces, defence capabilities, HR policies and strategies, the Reserve Defence Force, governance and high-level command and control in the Defence Forces and pay structures. The work of the commission was carried out against the backdrop of the defence policy framework set out in the White Paper 2015 and the White Paper update 2019, both of which were developed by joint civil and military teams.

Following 13 months of intensive work carried out by the commission members, the report of the Commission on the Defence Forces was published in February 2022. The report contained 130 recommendations in total, and recommended widespread and unprecedented changes for the Defence Forces and defence provision in Ireland. The commission emphasised the urgent need for cultural transformation within the Defence Forces. In response to the report, a memorandum and a high-level action plan, including a response to all 130 recommendations, were brought to Government and approved on 12 July 2022. The Government approved a move, over a six-year period, to a level of Defence Forces’ capability equivalent to level of ambition, LOA, 2, as set out in the capability framework devised by the commission, which will entail funding increases to reach a defence budget of €1.5 billion at January 2022 prices by 2028, to be agreed through the annual Estimates process. This represents the largest funding increase for defence in the history of the State.

The high-level action plan which I have just referred to was produced by a civil-military team comprising of personnel from the Department of Defence and the Defence Forces. The plan was launched following a period of extensive engagement across the Defence Forces, as well as with a wide range of other stakeholders and various Departments. The high-level action plan noted that the commission’s report contained 69 main recommendations, which together with sub-recommendations, comprised 130 recommendations in total. The high-level action plan grouped all 130 recommendations under five strategic objectives as follow: strategic HR and cultural change to be delivered; new command and control and joint structures to be established; services to be reformed and restructured; Reserve Defence Force to be revitalised; and joint capability development to be implemented. In addition to the five strategic objectives, a separate enabling workstream captured the necessary building blocks required for implementation of many of the recommendations within the report. These include: Government defence LOA defined; implementation structures developed; defence budget allocation agreed; key HR enablers developed; and strategic defence review progressed.

The high-level action plan set out a total of 38 early actions to be completed within six months of the Government decision.

The plan also set out implementation and oversight structures, including a high-level steering board chaired by the Secretary General of the Department of the Taoiseach, an IOG with an independent chair, and a civil–military implementation management office. The membership of the high-level steering board includes Secretaries General from the Department of the Taoiseach, the Department of Defence, the Department of Justice, the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications, the Department of Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform, and the Department of Foreign Affairs, and also the Chief of Staff of the Defence Forces. In addition to holding the position of independent chair of the IOG, I also sit on the high-level steering board.

The purpose of the high-level steering board is to oversee the implementation of the recommendations in Report of the Commission on the Defence Forces, as approved by the Government. In addition to supporting and guiding the implementation, the board will also act as a clearinghouse for issues that cannot be resolved or where particular blockages are being experienced in the implementation of the commission's recommendations. The purpose of the IOG is to oversee and drive progress on the implementation of the recommendations of the commission.

The membership of the IOG includes senior representatives from the Department of the Taoiseach, the Department of Justice, the Department of Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform, the Department of Foreign Affairs and the National Cyber Security Centre. It also includes me, as the independent chair, two assistant secretaries from the Department of Defence and two deputy chiefs of staff from the Defence Forces. It will include the Defence Forces head of transformation, who is due to be appointed shortly.

The high-level action plan identified 38 early actions to progress several key recommendations from the commission's report that would provide the necessary building blocks to develop a detailed implementation plan. The commission's report identified five core areas to be addressed in an implementation plan, and these were captured in the high-level action plan as the five strategic objectives that I have referred to. The detailed implementation plan will also be structured around these five strategic objectives.

Intensive work has been carried out on this plan over recent months. The implementation management office has provided updates on the progress of the implementation plan to the IOG throughout the process. As the Tánaiste has stated previously – I wholeheartedly agree – it is important for this plan to be completed expeditiously, but it is more important that we get it right. This is particularly important in the context of the recent publication of the report of the independent review group on dignity and equality issues in the Defence Forces. The detailed implementation plan will set out how the commission's recommendations are to be delivered up to 2028. The scale of the proposed transformation effort is unprecedented and there is much work to do in the months and years ahead.

While acknowledging the scale of the task that lies ahead, I would like to reflect on what has been achieved to date. On 23 March this year, a comprehensive update on the 38 early actions was published. At that time, 80% of the early actions were fully completed, with the remainder substantially progressed. Since the publication of this update, several additional early actions have been completed, including the design of gender, diversity and unconscious bias training and the commencement of the strategic defence review. Further progress on the early actions is ongoing. Throughout the early-action phase, the Commission on the Defence Forces implementation management office reported to the IOG regarding the progress on, and the status of, the early actions, including the development of a detailed implementation plan.

Some of the key achievements to date include Government approval to move to LOA 2, with funding to be increased to €1.5 billion, based on 2022 prices, by 2028, to be agreed upon through the annual Estimates process. This represents the largest investment in defence in the history of the State.

The head of transformation and head of strategic human resources positions have been advertised externally and substantially progressed, with appointments to both of these roles to be made shortly. These positions are key to the success of the transformation programme. Recruitment and induction strategies, encompassing advertising, expanded recruitment and induction capacity, have been developed.

The Office of Reserve Affairs has been established. Ministerial consent for temporary associate membership of ICTU, for the purpose of participation in discussions on national pay agreements, was provided for the representative associations in May 2022. Pay has improved as a result of increases arising from the findings of the Public Service Pay Commission's report and from recent pay agreements and the early implementation of some of the recommendations of the Commission on the Defence Forces. The implementation of two of these recommendations, namely, that personnel of private three-star or able seaman rank be paid the full rate of military service allowance applicable to the rank and that the requirement for that cohort to mark time for the first three years at that rank be removed, has had a substantial impact on starting pay rates in the Defence Forces, and the rates compare very well with starting pay rates across the public service.

In addition, the Building Momentum pay agreement extension allows for increases in pay of 6.5% over the lifetime of the agreement. Since 1 March 2023, pay rates have started at €37,147 in year 1 for a recruit on the completion of basic training, €41,123 for a school-leaver cadet on commissioning and €46,406 for a graduate cadet on commissioning. All figures include military service allowance, which is pensionable.

I thank my colleagues in the IOG and the high-level steering board for their invaluable contribution to the process so far. I acknowledge the importance of the collaborative work carried out by the Defence Forces and the Department of Defence. As a group, we have monitored the progress of the implementation of the early actions over the past several months, and we are satisfied with the progress to date, with the vast majority of early actions fully completed and the remainder substantially progressed. The progress to date has laid strong foundations for future work to deliver on this critical agenda.

The Tánaiste and Minister for Defence, Deputy Micheál Martin, has highlighted the importance of the recommendations of the Commission on the Defence Forces and that the strategic framework being put in place to drive these through will be an important enabling mechanism for the delivery of the independent review group's actions. I understand that the Tánaiste's priority now is to ensure that there is one strategic plan for the transformation of the Defence Forces, fully understood by everyone, with appropriate governance and reporting mechanisms and properly resourced, and also to ensure that progress will be seen internally and reported externally. Clear and irrefutable evidence of change on the ground is the only thing that will rebuild the confidence of serving members and enhance the trust of the public they serve.

I thank the Cathaoirleach for inviting me here today and look forward to hearing members' thoughts and views on matters relating to the Commission on the Defence Forces.