Ms Josephine Feehily:

Returning to the complaints point, it is military and civilian. We also met civilian staff who were working in the Defence Forces. Just to be clear, our remit is oversight of the Defence Forces, not the Department. To the extent that we engage with civilians and look at that issue of complaints, it is complaints within the Defence Forces of those in uniform and civilians. The question of uniform staff in the context of the Department is not in our terms of reference or in the engagement we have had up until now. However, we have engaged with civilian staff – both industrial civil servants and general civil servants and professionals working within the Defence Forces. It is a different relationship because they are working without the command and control entitlements but they are still subject to direction. It is a tricky one.