Mr. Conor King:

I will hand over shortly to Mr. Jacob to talk about some of the norms in other member states. It is probably a fair bit outside our scope under Defence Forces Regulation S6 to talk about whether we should be members. All I can speak about is what currently exists. We are not allowed to be a member of a political party or - the language is quite archaic - a secret society. We are also not allowed to make a public comment on a political matter. To our mind, that would be favouring one political party over another, for example, or encouraging our members to vote in a certain way in our democracy or in terms of our political system. However, I have to come back every single time to the addition of the new language that has appeared in this head of Bill, which now talks about any aspect of Government policy. This has gone too far, in our opinion.

I have so many different examples that I can give about how this could restrict a member of the Defence Forces from taking part in normal civil society, from a member of the GAA, for example, to a member of a residents association talking to local government. In particular, it might restrict us from addressing a meeting of the ICTU public services committee, which is, by necessity, a body that seeks to influence Government policy. Delegates at our conference, with the Minister or Members of the Oireachtas present, could be construed as trying to influence Government policy. That is why the legislation as it is currently proposed is abhorrent and does not compute with regard to how we should be able to do our jobs.