Mr. Conor King:

The Deputy mentioned heads Nos. 25 and 26. Mr. Guinan has covered head No. 26 well. I want it to be understood by everybody that there is no objection to the provisions preventing public commentary on a political matter. That is part of paragraph (j) of head No. 26. It is everything else that follows that is abhorrent to us and our ability to do our work on behalf of our members. We advocate on pay and pensions policy and, as Mr. Guinan said, on working time policy, and on a range of other issues, such as health and safety and other HR matters. All of those matters are covered under in the third schedule - scope of representation - to Defence Forces Regulation S6. The latter was established under the Defence (Amendment) Act 1990, which is the primary legislation. If the proposed words are now put into the primary legislation, overarching the secondary legislation, they will be the bible and all of a sudden everything we have known since 1990 will be out of kilter. As Mr. Guinan said, words matter. This is important for accuracy purposes and to allow us to continue to do our jobs effectively.

Mr. Berney has talked about head No. 25 in the broader sense but we have been struggling with the issues in that head for more than four years. The unilateral removal of the rights and protections of one of our members who had his membership stripped in 2020 has been a source of serious concern and has been the subject of an adjudication that has been laid before the Houses of the Oireachtas. In that adjudication were severe criticisms of how RACO and its members had been dealt with in terms of the withdrawal of those rights on a unilateral basis. The point is that membership of a representative association does not define commissioned officers or enlisted personnel. That has nothing to do with who you are as a member of the Defence Forces. Such membership is nice to have and relates to your rights in civil society but it is something you look to if you need help on an industrial relations or HR matter. It is the oath you take on commissioning and enlistment that defines you as a member. It is your subjection to militarily law and willingness to put yourself in harm's way for the State that defines you. It has nothing to do with your membership of a representative association. It does not make sense to us that our association or any other would be targeted in this manner.