Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Independent)

I completely concur with the Minister that the level of priority was the reverse of what it should have been. I understand there is an internal memo which states there are serious operational difficulties as a consequence of not having a centralised headquarters. I presume risk assessments are made all the time. Senior officials of the Defence Forces will never say they cannot do their job. However, it should be of concern to us that such a situation arose. Is it likely that there will be a fall-back position in the foreseeable future? Are we talking about an excessively long period to remedy this problem? What can be done to overcome the operational issues in the meantime? Five years ago we would not have thought our banks would be accorded junk status and our economy would have collapsed. When it comes to the Defence Forces, we like to think they are somewhere in the background which is where they should be. A system of risk analysis would help us foresee the kind of issues that could present.

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