Mr. Conor King:

I thank the Deputy very much for the question. On the lack of consultation, it is important to reiterate that today presents an opportunity because, in fairness to the drafters, the general scheme refers to regulations that may be made. However, we have bitter experience of being excluded from the drafting of regulations, the secondary legislation that is supposed to provide the detail following on from primary legislation. Indeed, one of our adjudications decried the notion of secret laws. A Government-appointed adjudicator criticised the Department of Defence for making secret laws, whereby it made a Defence Forces regulation that excluded a member of the Defence Forces from being a member of RACO and did not tell us about it until about a year later. Therefore, based on experience, we have no confidence that we would be involved in the drafting of the regulations. That is why we are here today, unfortunately.

On appeals, the fact of the matter is that it is difficult to state the duration of a Defence Forces suspension because there are no suspensions in the Defence Forces. There is local leave, special leave, gardening leave and orders not to come into the barracks, but there is nothing on paper. That is why this legislation is going through the Houses. I could not tell the Deputy how long a suspension is.