Mr. Justice Alan Mahon:

One has to admire people, generally speaking, who, rather than rush off with a complaint sit back and think about it. Many Defence Forces personnel serve six-month tours of duty. As a result, this might be the last thing on their minds. Thus, the 12 months passes quickly.

The Deputy's first point was interesting. I looked at some of the legislation on military ombudsmen in other countries when I was doing some research into own-motion inquiries. They allow all complaints, including from their military, to go to their ombudsman. Then all they do is list those he or she cannot deal with, for example, military operations and things like that.