Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

We have a good group in the Department which has been liaising with many other Departments. The basis of a White Paper must be a comprehensive security assessment to identify that which we must defend against. We must then provide an infrastructure to ensure the State is adequately defended for the next ten years. That is essentially the approach taken in the White Paper. The Department has been moving from a Green Paper to a White Paper and has engaged in extensive consultation with other Departments, particularly on the security assessment.

I established a group outside the Department and Government to advise me on international best practice and put forward other views to ensure I am being challenged in terms of issues that should be considered. I have asked Mr. John Minihan, the former chairman of the Progressive Democrats Party, to chair the group. Mr. Minihan is a former officer who served abroad on many occasions, including in Lebanon, and is passionate about defence policy. The group also includes Mr. Karl Croke, a former Defence Forces officer who has been very successful in the private sector and has particular expertise in human resource management.

Marie Cross is also on the aforementioned group advising me. She has a lot of experience, has worked with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and is now deeply involved in the Institute of International and European and Affairs, IIEA. In addition, Frank Lynch, who is the former flag officer of the Naval Service, is on that group. It is a group of four highly experienced people, three of whom are ex-Defence Forces personnel and all of whom are ambitious and interested in defence policy and the Defence Forces in Ireland. They are contributing to the development of the policy.

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