Gerard Craughwell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank Mr. Justice Mahon for his report. As always, it is an excellent report covering a wide range of things. I will deal with a few issues. I will put them all to the ombudsman and he can decide how to handle them from there. The first one I will speak about is the IRG report. For me, this report was extremely distressing. One simple line said that a prima facie case had been found that further inquiries would have satisfied. Instead, the report led to a sense of "Hang him high; get the lynching posse together" in these Houses. To my horror, senior politicians started to make allegations about the Defence Forces not being a safe place to work in, not being a place they would allow their daughter to serve and so on. I found that extremely distressing in light of the fact that the ombudsman's office had not been approached by a number of these women. The reasons or rationale for that is something that neither he nor I can go into in great detail but it created a very negative view of an employment opportunity in Ireland that is truly wonderful. The Defence Forces offer a great career and tremendous opportunities to those who enter them. I am deeply distressed by the IRG report and the level of detail that was given on untested evidence. As a former judge, I am sure Mr. Justice Mahon would like evidence to be tested.

The ombudsman's report refers to the increase in complaints from officers. I am mindful that, a few years ago, the 27th battalion in Dundalk was managed by one captain and three lieutenants. We made a bit of an issue of it in the Seanad and suddenly a commandant was despatched overnight, who was told they were in charge in Dundalk from now on. On the level of work placed on commissioned officers, many carry out two or three duties. It may have changed now that the numbers have increased but a young officer would be sent to barracks and be expected to write a report on the men serving under him or her a week later. It put an extraordinarily amount of pressure on young commissioned officers, who may have been at the rank of second lieutenant or lieutenant, to have to appraise people they did not actually know and with whom they had never worked in the field. Has that issue manifested itself in complaints to the ombudsman?

There is direct contact with Oireachtas Members by serving members of the Defence Forces. The members have representative bodies at their disposal, both RACO and PDFORRA, which do a wonderful job for those they serve. The chain of command is also available to everybody. Is there a problem that people are not comfortable with the chain of command? These members also have the ombudsman's office. My colleague Deputy Buckley mentioned protected disclosures a little while ago. Many of those that come in do not meet the criteria to be deemed a protected disclosure. People feel they can come to Members of the Oireachtas. That would have been - I am sure it still is - repugnant to good order and discipline. It is a disciplined organisation and there should be very clear guidelines as to how to approach a particular problem. I may be giving the ombudsman too much. Will I keep going?

On bullying, having led a trade union for a number of years and having been a trade union activist in my time, I know that bullying is, as the ombudsman said, a very strange word. What might be bullying to you might be robust management to me. I recall from my trade union days being called by a teacher and told about the horrendous bullying she was suffering. I was only newly into the job of president and I said that I would go down and teach this guy a lesson. I went down to County Mayo and met the teacher in question. I asked her to give me the story and she told me that, every morning, when she came into work he was standing there. I asked her what time she came in at. She said she was always in by 9.15 a.m. I asked her what time school started. She said she had issues and that school starts at 9 a.m. but asked whether he had to do what he was doing. It was really a situation of robust management rather than bullying. Bullying is largely misunderstood. Perhaps education as to what constitutes bullying is needed. I do not know if that has crossed the ombudsman's desk.

The other thing that bothers me - I do not know if the ombudsman has had a complaint about this - is that, when I joined the Defence Forces in 1975, I joined for life. You could stay and do your 21 years, 31 years or 40 years. The contract places soldiers under extreme stress to get overseas service, to carry out courses and all of that stuff. Given the chain of command, if you happen to come across somebody who is not easy to deal with, he or she may sideline you for a training course or not select you to go overseas. Has that issue come before the office of the ombudsman? I will leave it at that.