Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 1 July 2025

Committee on Defence and National Security

General Scheme of the Defence (Amendment) Bill 2025: Discussion (Resumed)

2:00 am

Ms Maureen O'Brien:

I can talk about my experience of one person who was found to have failed a random drug test. All I could do was make sure that that person did not carry a weapon for the year that it took me to discharge him because of the lengths of appeals lodged by that person. He got every opportunity and due process took a year.

While we found work that he could do - there is always work for unarmed people - he also put a burden on the people who were there to do his work as well.