Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)

I welcome our witnesses, Mr. Justice Mahon and Mr. O'Connor, to the committee. It is heartening to hear the positive, upbeat report from the ombudsman. He paints a picture of an office that is adequately resourced. Generally when we meet groups in the Oireachtas or in our daily work, they refer to a need for additional financial resources, so it is good to hear of one particular office where those heading it up believe it is properly resourced. The witnesses also paint a picture of a positive interaction with the Department of Defence and the Defence Forces, which is good from the point of view of dealing with the issues that need to be dealt with.

Like Deputy Buckley, I commend the Women of Honour group on the great work they did in highlighting those particular very serious issues. We had the opportunity to speak on those issues in the Dáil on a number of occasions and I again commend that work. It was very important that those issues would be addressed.

Regarding the types of issues that come to the attention of the ombudsman's office, we heard that the Minister and the Department accepted 96% of the recommendations made by the office. I presume that is a high percentage in any governance between an ombudsman and Departments and Ministers. Some years ago, as a member of the then foreign affairs and defence Oireachtas committee, I visited a number of barracks. My colleague Senator Joe Flaherty represents Offaly and Westmeath and I represent Cavan-Monaghan, both of which have a strong military tradition. We had barracks in Monaghan and in Dún Ui Néill in Cavan, which unfortunately are no longer open. I am very familiar with the great work our Permanent Defence Force have done over the years at home and abroad, representing our country with great distinction. One thing that annoyed me and others on the committee was the poor quality of living accommodation in some barracks. Has that come to the attention of the ombudsman as an issue? We need to recruit more personnel into our Permanent Defence Force and to improve retention levels.

On those visits, the living accommodation for young adults, both female and male, was just not good enough at some of the barracks. By and large, people nowadays live in reasonably good accommodation and a lot of people live in very good accommodation. People are used to good standards, when they are leaving home to go off on a career path. The type of accommodation provided in some of the barracks would not encourage anyone. I sincerely believe proper accommodation should be provided for people who are serving our State and representing us. I know that during the past few years, with Deputy Micheál Martin as previous Minister for Defence and Deputy Simon Harris as current Minister for Defence, there has been substantial ongoing capital investment and I am sure there is a need for more. Has the issue of inadequate accommodation been brought to the ombudsman's attention by serving members?