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

On the Deputy's last question, there is a governance and high-level command and control structure in the Defence Forces discussion within the remit. This involves, to a limited extent, the relationship of the Department of Defence. I am aware that the former Chief of Staff and the Secretary General of the Department had been working on an agreed approach towards that issue and have fed this into the commission's work, which I believe is understood by the chair of the commission. This work has been ongoing for quite a number of months.

In parallel, a review of the Department of Defence is taking place as part of a Civil Service review of Departments. It is appropriate that we are reviewing the functioning and running of the Department of Defence at the same time as an independent commission is looking at the future of the Defence Forces.

On the Reserve Defence Force, I am sure Members will be interested to know that we are progressing the defence legislation at the moment in the Seanad, which will remove the barrier to the RDF serving overseas. I hope that is a signal to the RDF that we very much value the work they do and that we want to expand their role rather than the opposite in the future.

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