Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

One of the most regrettable realities of the past six or seven years has been the political neglect of our Defence Forces. Political leadership of the Department of Defence was first relegated to being a part-time role exercised by a Minister holding responsibility for another major Department and more recently to being a job handed out to a Minister of State. When the Taoiseach, Deputy Varadkar, came into the Dáil two weeks ago to announce the assignment of ministries, he omitted to tell us in the Chamber that he had taken responsibility for the Department of Defence himself. This level of political disregard for the Department and the Defence Forces is simply not acceptable. It does, however, help us to understand why problems and issues such as the one we are discussing have been allowed to run on for so long.

I represent a constituency, Cavan-Monaghan, that has had a long and proud association with the Defence Forces, the real and only Óglaigh na hÉireann, as an institution and as a family tradition. I know of many families in which two, three and more generations have proudly served in our Defence Forces and who cherish their service to the Defence Forces and to our nation. Even the shameful and absurd closure by the last Government of Dún Uí Neill Barracks in Cavan, one of the few new barracks built by the State, could not diminish that proud connection. Dún Uí Neill was a modern and very cost-effective military installation that is sadly no longer with us.

For these families and for many thousands of young men and women across the island, North and South, joining the Irish Defence Forces is their first and primary employment option. There is a myth abroad that young people join the Defence Forces because they have no other options but nothing could be further from the truth. Even at the absolute peak of the economic boom, the number of people applying to join the Defence Forces considerably outweighed the number of vacancies. If memory serves me correctly, in the early 2000s there were about 25 applications for every cadet recruitment vacancy and in the region of ten applications for every general service one. I make these points to stress the responsibility and onus on us to ensure that the people who willingly offer to serve their country at home and abroad in the most difficult of circumstances have the best equipment, training, conditions and supports.

As Deputy Micheál Martin pointed out on Leaders' Questions this morning, we are no longer offering these young men and women the best pay and conditions. As this Private Members' business motion highlights, neither are we offering them the fullest and best medical supports. As any of us who have had to go abroad on business will know, travel to certain parts of the world requires various medical vaccines and treatments. By definition, the places we send our Defence Forces personnel to as part of their UN-mandated peace support operations are in turmoil and pose many dangers. It is right and proper therefore that we put the best medical supports in place to minimise the risks to our personnel. We should never send them into these trouble spots without the right and appropriate equipment and training. Neither should we send them without the best range of modern and up-to-date medical supports and services. These include vaccinations and treatments. It is not sufficient to offer anti-malarial treatments; we must offer the best ones and the ones with minimal risks and side effects. The simple truth is there are real and genuine concerns about the continued use of Lariam as an anti-malarial. The stock response by the Government over recent years is no longer acceptable or sufficient. The answer appears to miss the reality that medical expertise on the use of Lariam is moving on as others here have mentioned. I refer to Dr. Humer in particular. There are more effective anti-malarial drugs available with reduced side effects and they are the ones we should be offering as standard.

This issue highlights the need for us to considerably review and overhaul the operations of the medical corps within the Defence Forces. As far back as 2008 and 2009, it was recognised that the Army medical corps needed an independent root and branch review after several recruitment campaigns, run here and abroad, failed to fill vacancies for doctors and other professionals. PA Consulting was brought in to do this review and made several recommendations. Several working groups were set up within the Department and the Defence Forces to identify the practical steps needed to implement that report. It is hard to identify what they did.

In 2012, we were told that a central medical unit had been formally established to enable the detailed structures, processes and personnel to be put in place to provide for the support, management and delivery of modern medical services for the Defence Forces. However, only a few years later Ministers were still coming in here to tell us the number of doctors in the medical corps was still way below established levels. In 2014, the former Minister, Alan Shatter, told the Dáil the medical corps had only 18 of the 32 doctors it required. It is no wonder that Lariam is an issue when the Government and Department are not treating the ongoing and sustainable delivery of full and proper medical services with the seriousness it deserves.

I am happy to support this motion, but it overlooks the key problem underpinning this and other problems, namely, the importance and significance we assign to our Defence Forces. As the Minister of State, Deputy Kehoe, knows, we have discussed this at the Oireachtas committee on defence. I welcome the representatives and people who have long advocated on this issue. Many personnel in Cavan and Monaghan, people who have served with distinction abroad, have told me of the side effects of having been prescribed that particular drug. It has had adverse impacts on the quality of their lives. Surely the least we could do is to eliminate the use of that particular drug and ensure that our personnel who, as the Minister of State said, do us proud in many countries throughout the world as well as at home, have the best medication available to them to ensure they are well-equipped for the difficult tasks they undertake in many troubled spots and in their routine duties throughout our State.

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