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

I am advised that there are no practical day-to-day difficulties involved. Clearly, however, there is now a requirement for people to travel to certain meetings and so on. From a territorial viewpoint, however, Ireland is not a huge country. We have reorganised the Defence Forces in a way that essentially went from three senior command structures to two. That was done on the basis of giving advice to the Minister, having had a long discussion between the Secretary General and the then Chief of Staff.

From my experience of having been Minister for Defence for nearly a year, and from what I have seen, the operation of the Defence Forces is highly efficient. Of course there are some requirements at times to travel either to Cork or Dublin from the locations the Deputy mentioned. However, I do not think it has had a significant operational cost impact on the overall command and control structures within the Defence Forces.

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