Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 27 February 2024

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence

General Scheme of the Defence (Amendment) Bill 2023: Discussion (Resumed)

Professor Brian MacCraith:

When one looks at defence forces across the world, there is hardly a major or minor defence force that has not been faced with this. It is very fortunate that we have Ms Sam des Forges from the UK Ministry of Defence. Her job title in the Ministry of Defence is to be responsible for conduct, equity and justice and she was brought in. They are dealing with this in Britain and the Deputy may have seen the recent coverage about the Red Arrows in that regard. We look at the US, Canada and Australia. There are some good examples of interventions as well and we are learning from those. That is going to be increasingly part of this because there is nothing particularly new about what is happening or has happened in Ireland so we do not want to spend a lot of time reinventing the wheel when there are good examples elsewhere. That is why, to answer the Deputy's question about resources, we need people drawing that in and we need to engage more with those international bodies. That is part of the vision for the expansion of this group.

Comments

No comments

Log in or join to post a public comment.