Mr. Rossa Mulcahy:

I am sure Colonel McNally is quaking in his boots behind me remembering those days. The Senator asked about a number of policy matters. I will pass the questions on the future all-island policy and approach to the Secretary General. As the Senator knows, there is an office in the Department of the Taoiseach looking at that matter. I have not yet sat in on any of the national security committees in my role, but that is perhaps something that will be discussed in the future. I do not know. I will ask the GOC to come in on the air domain in a second. With regard to the committee's generous offer, I said in my opening statement that the continued level of political support is greatly appreciated and keenly felt in the Defence Forces. The support we get in public speeches and the continued support towards level of ambition 2 is also keenly felt among all of our personnel.

With regard to our asks, my offer to the committee is for it come and see what we do. I may speak to the Chair about that. It may be for the committee to see some of the key exercises we hold before our troops go overseas or some of the operational readiness exercises that we conduct. We could host a meeting of the committee in a military installation, and it might have an opportunity to meet some of our personnel to see the work they do.

The Senator is right about how we tell the people of Ireland what we do. We have a strong media team and campaign. We are on every platform. We post the daily work we do. We have monthly updates and bulletins, so we are trying to show people what is going on behind the barracks walls. A key responsibility for me as Chief of Staff is to make sure that not only are we communicating to our personnel inside the Defence Forces, but also at the political and civil levels. I have a number of engagements where I go out to speak about what the Defence Forces do. The biggest support we can get is the committee's continued support for the funding towards level of ambition 2. It is an ambitious timeline. The Secretary General rightly spoke about the work and progress to date on the Commission on the Defence Forces. We have 130 recommendations. We have achieved 43 of those already, with 16 more to conclude by the end of this year, which is well above 45% of it. That is moving towards level of ambition 2 at a significant pace. The ones that are coming are more long term with regard to procurement capabilities, etc. The support this defence and security committee provides is key in that regard. The Tánaiste is hugely supportive of the Defence Forces and the move towards level of ambition 3. The Senator will have heard him say on many occasions that there is awareness of the security issues Ireland is facing now with our place in Europe. We are no longer an island off an island. We are fully integrated into the European architecture and the threats that Europe faces and those on the wider global stage. The fact that this committee is asking questions about how seriously defence is being taken is hugely empowering for us as an organisation and will ensure the funds we need will be realised for our Defence Forces and we can transform and turn into a fit-for-purpose military force.