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
Ms Julie Sinnamon:
Okay. On the engagement with consultants, and I mentioned we had met with Professor Crowley, Deloitte won the contract for the major support for the Defence Forces. We have had a number of engagements with Deloitte and will continue to do so. What Deloitte is supporting is totally aligned with the actions which are set out in both the IOG and in the EOB. We have regular dialogue with it to ensure what it is doing will deliver the results in respect of the transformational change we need. It is not a once-off; it is an active engagement.
On the representative associations, because of the overlap between the actions of the IOG and the EOB, although at this time the representative associations have decided they are not engaged directly with the EOB, I have not had any engagement with the Reserve Defence Force Representative Association but it is one I would be anxious to prioritise. Now that we have the development plan in place and a lot of work set out, those engagements are really valuable to understanding the lived experience of the people and what they see are the issues.
I am not sure whether I have missed anything out in that. I thank everybody for the engagement. It is something which is critical. It is more critical today than it was when the Commission on Defence Forces report was initially published, so this is a valuable dialogue for me.
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