Charles Flanagan (Laois-Offaly, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I will come back to Deputy Carthy in a minute. I convey to the chair of the oversight group a certain level of frustration on the part of members, which I am sure has been evident during this hearing. We have been involved since the commission was sitting. We had a very useful engagement with the chair of the commission and we made our contributions. We monitored the workings. Some members met individually and bilaterally with other members of the commission, particularly those with international expertise and experience, all of which was very valuable. We welcomed the landmark publication of the report.

In Ms Sinnamon's submission, the word "urgent" appears. In the commission report, the word "urgent" appears on a number of occasions. That would seem obvious in the context of armed forces which have been chronically underfunded, evidence of which is clear to us as members with staff morale at its lowest in the history of the State and poor equipment is evident. Committee members have had the opportunity of visiting the Air Corps at Baldonnel, the Naval Service at Haulbowline and the Curragh. We saw at first-hand the consequences of a poor level of investment over many years. We have had a failure of recruitment. We now have approximately 8,000 Defence Forces members, which is 3,500 less than what it should be, as Deputy Berry said. This is the background to the urgency.

We have not even mentioned the issue of war and conflict in Europe, geopolitical instability and active threats on European soil. That has resulted in the type of frustration the members are conveying. It is not frustration levelled at the implementation oversight group, but we must stress the need for deadlines to be met. That is my question really. The commission identified 2025 as a reasonable target date for the delivery of the entire transformation. This is mid-2023 and next year is 2024. How confident is Ms Sinnamon that these deadlines can be met?

The commission has said that the representative organisations will have a crucial role in supporting the implementation process, yet these meetings do not appear to have taken place. The commission identified a number of early-stage wins, including the appointment of the oversight group, the external recruitment of a head of transformation, the strategic HR manager, the creation of the office of reserve affairs and the creation of a capability development unit, all of which is under way, but none of which has been rolled out after a year of deliberation.

In the context of Ms Sinnamon's appointment, what assurances did she receive from the Minister or the Government that she will be able to carry out her work in a way that will not be restricted? I can think of two restrictions. One of these is legislation and the other is budgets. We have seen the budget and the acceptance by the Government and the underlining by the Dáil of LAO2. In her view, will this be sufficient to allow the implementation process to be successful? Regarding legislation, what guarantees has she received from the Minister that the legislation will be published? The publication of a Bill, of course, is only the start of the process. We here have an important role in this regard, as does the plenary meeting of Parliament.

It seems that the target date of 2025 is ambitious but needs to be achieved. I say this having regard to the content of the report, the real need to see the transformation process implemented in a way that can ensure a morale boost for our Army and allow Ireland to be seen, domestically and internationally, to be taking defence seriously. This is not evident in the context of our deliberations on the international stage with visiting delegations.

I refer to this committee's role in engaging with witnesses in the context of foreign affairs issues and hearing regularly that the situation in Ireland cannot continue in terms of our investment in respect of the manner in which our Defence Forces play a role in society, having regard in recent times to issues such as hybrid aggression, cyberattacks, capabilities to manipulate our systems, organised crime, espionage and energy insecurity. This is before we look at the conflict in Ukraine and the entire weakness of our maritime resources. In this context, Ms Sinnamon has an extremely important role. How confident is she that the implementation process can take place in a way that is not in any way restricted by forces that might try to ensure this might not take place as smoothly as we would like?