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

I give a commitment to this House, the Women of Honour and other groups that I have met in this regard. I remain open to talking to all groups, by the way, while this review is undertaken but I also encourage everybody to engage with the review group.

Ms Justice O'Hanlon is absolutely committed to this process, as is Jane Williams and the senior counsel who is working with both of them. We are determined to bring about fundamental change on the back of the report that comes from this independent review, which needs to be independent of the Department of Defence. The Department and the Minister’s office are part of the review of how complaints are responded to by the Department, as well as the role of the Defence Forces. It was an ask of the Women of Honour that we added to the terms of reference. As well as this, historical cases, how we deal with those historical cases and the structures that are there to deal with them are also additions to the terms of reference, on the back of what the Women of Honour asked for in my meeting with them in December. We remain focused on this discussion. We would like now for this review group to get under way quickly, which I understand is going to happen so that we can get an interim report back in the summer and a final report before the end of the year with real recommendations around how we can bring practical change to the Defence Forces in this space to improve the safety of the workplace for everybody.

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