Mr. Kieran Brennan:

I have some experience on this and I have been a practitioner of human resource management, HRM, in the Defence Forces, strictly in my role. Very briefly, all members of the Defence Forces are governed by the Defence Act and the Defence Forces regulations. That is our gospel. That is what commanders use. Obviously people thought that the Chief of Staff had the power of suspension a number of months ago. The Chief of Staff does not have that. It is a positive step that the provision will now be introduced because it will put the Chief of Staff on a par with the Garda Commissioner and he can suspend people from duty. There are various reasons I will not go into that but the provision is a positive step.

To answer the Senator's question, this is not in vogue at the moment. Until such time as the Bill is passed, the Chief of Staff does not have the power to suspend people as of now.