Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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I am told there is no real relationship between compensation and ongoing medical costs per se. We have an arbitration process in the Defence Forces that works reasonably well. I make a point of committing to the recommendations that come through this system and the same goes for the ombudsman. If there are better ways in which we can make decisions that avoid court cases I am totally open to it. There is too much litigation linked to the defence family, if we want to call it that. There are also a lot of protected disclosures that we have to think about how we address in terms of systems in the Defence Forces. This has less to do with the Department and much more to do with the Defence Forces per se, whereby people feel they have not been treated fairly or that decisions were made that did not follow full procedures. Within the Defence Forces we have many procedures and structures and we need to find a way of not tying ourselves up in knots when we do not need to with regard to litigation and protected disclosures. Of course, there has to be a transparent and confidential outlet for people also who feel they have been unfairly treated.

That is important, particularly among Defence Forces personnel and working in a structured environment which needs to protect people as well as systems.