Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 15 October 2024

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence

Report of the Commission on the Defence Forces: Engagement with Chair of Implementation Oversight Group

3:10 pm

Mr. Eamonn Murtagh:

I apologise if I gave the impression that I was at loggerheads with or was pushing this to another Government Department. There has been extensive engagement and real co-operation and collaboration between ourselves and the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment to try to find the right legal mechanism. The conclusion of that process now as regards the identification as the statutory instrument as the appropriate legal mechanism to give effect to the removal of the blanket exception is very welcome from a timing point of view, as the Deputy knows.

Bringing a whole Act through would be quite difficult but the statutory instrument provides for that to be completed quickly. The hope and expectation is that it will be done before the end of this year. That is the communication the Tánaiste has received from the Minister, Deputy Peter Burke. That is what has been worked through.

The timeline that had been outlined in the detailed implementation plan was that legislation would be completed by September of this year. We are a bit further beyond what we had hoped and expected but I am assured it will be completed this year. It is absolutely the number one priority for the Tánaiste. It is all he focuses on with us as a management team. At the strategic management committee of both the Department and the Defence Forces, the Tánaiste always raises the implementation of the working time directive with us. It has been a very complex piece of work to get to this stage but I am assured we are at that final hurdle.

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