Mr. Justice Alan Mahon:

Yes. I imagine, given all that has happened in relation to the IRG report, there is no great hurry to bring in new legislation just to deal with these items. That has not been said to me, but I suspect that all of these things are now being considered but perhaps in a longer timeframe. In relation to the 12-month limitation period, we had several meetings with the Secretary General and her officials. We came up with improved steps to warn would-be complainants that their time was running out. For example, now, we write a letter three months before the 12 months are up to warn people. In a small number of cases, that has very quickly resulted in a complaint being referred. The problem is that only deals with cases in which we are aware that somebody has a complaint, if you like, looming, still within the internal Defence Forces system. We do not know if there is somebody out there coming to the end of that first year, wondering if they will bring a complaint. We have no way of knowing they exist, so we have no way of warning them. It was for that sort of individual that we thought a 24-month period was more appropriate. Some people do not want to rush in to complain; perhaps they are serving overseas or whatever. Between this and that, by the time they come around to make a complaint, they may have run out of time. Many personnel in the Defence Forces try to resolve a complaint within their unit. Good efforts are often made by colleagues, non-commissioned officers and officers to try to sort out a situation, but that can take time. The individual may not be conscious that this 12-month period is running and he or she may run out of time.