Gerard Craughwell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

That is fine, Chairman, but I need to do so now because the IRG report was based on untested evidence. It was based on submissions made to people for God knows what reason. Certainly, there are serious allegations that need to be examined and anybody in uniform will agree there were issues, especially relating to sexual harassment, rape and bullying, but we do not yet know the level. We talk about transformational change, culture and so on, but I put it to the Tánaiste that transformational and cultural change might start with the Department. Cultural change might start with politics and politicians in general and we might then release the coercive control that exists over the Defence Forces, because they have been hamstrung all along.

I am very proud of members of the Defence Forces who have served overseas.

I know some who served many more terms than 17 in their lives. Would the Tánaiste not accept that our primary role is the defence of the State, and that it is the 26 counties of Ireland, the ports, the cables under the sea and the sky above that we are supposed to protect? Does he not accept that this is our primary role and that our secondary role is the provision of peacekeepers wherever they are wanted in the world? Are we not somehow or other creating an unbalanced view of what the Defence Forces are about?

On the Air Corps, as the Cathaoirleach stated, we visited Baldonnel. The Cathaoirleach will agree that when we left Baldonnel, we felt depressed by what we had seen. We saw PC-9 aircraft, which are the training aircraft, on the ground and unable to be flown because they were in need of maintenance. We saw a helicopter, which we were told is worth €40 million, that had been sitting in a corner for over a year because there is nobody to maintain it. Then I opened The Irish Times and saw Bristow Ireland, which have just been awarded the search and rescue, SAR, contract, celebrating the fact that it is spending €135 million of our money to buy helicopters for this contract that they will keep at the end if it, just like CHC Helicopter will keep the Sikorski S-92 that we paid for. Somebody somewhere has got the way we look at things all wrong. I agree with Deputy Berry that we need to find a way to reinvigorate and bring in those new helicopters he spoke about.

Deputy Cowen mentioned the drug bust off the south-west coast of Cork. How proud we all were of that drug bust. Due to the fact that there was only one helicopter available, if some of those soldiers had died, how would we feel about that? How quick would we be to come forward to say that they died because we did not properly resource them and could not provide two helicopters? Deputy Berry is a former special forces man. He will tell you that one helicopter provides sniper cover and the other provides fast-roping onto the ship; he will not be long correcting me if I am wrong. The bottom line is that because we make do on a shoestring when we should have the resources to do more, we go around the place clapping ourselves on the back. It is a national embarrassment.

I am just back from a conference in London on intelligence and security at which people were talking about the west coast of Ireland having only two ships available. One size does not fit all. If we are not able to recruit people, we have to look at everything, including the remuneration we are offering. Does the Tánaiste agree that raising the salary of an entrant is good but that if a corporal is not earning commensurately above that and if a sergeant is not earning above that again, there is no incentive to stay on, seek promotion or make a career. We are hamstrung by the fact that young officers are only serving for short periods. What about the middle-ranking officers such as captains and the commandants? We need to look after them. When I served in the 1st Battalion in Galway, we paraded every morning at 9 o'clock. Every company was on parade with a company commander and every platoon was on parade with a lieutenant, a sergeant and four corporals. The parade was handed over by the sergeant major to the 2IC and from there to the CO, and it was a sight to behold. I do not think we could do that anywhere today. I do not think we could put a battalion on parade anywhere. Despite all the words and everything else, we have got the concept wrong. We are talking about recruitment and retention; we have to start talking about retention and recruitment.

I can tell the Tánaiste, and I have the evidence to back it up, that we are in serious trouble in the areas of cybersecurity, like most countries in Europe. I am glad to see the National Cyber Security Centre has really stepped up to the plate, but we need far more people involved in cybersecurity and far greater oversight of what is happening in this area. We are one of the few parliaments in the world, if not the only one that I am aware of, that does not have an intelligence committee that can oversee the security and intelligence operations of the State. Is that something the Tánaiste's party, Fianna Fáil, might consider as part of a programme for Government next time around? I will leave it at that.