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

First, the whole point is I am not making that work. This is not a review that is being undertaken by the Department of Defence. It is a review being undertaken independently, with an independent chair, a former High Court judge, and a very experienced HR reform consultant, who has spent the last 12 months looking at some of these issues already through her work with the Commission on the Defence Forces. The whole point is to take it out of the Department of Defence, the Defence Forces and, quite frankly, the political sphere and to ask an experienced group of people to consult widely having been given broad terms of reference with which they are happy. We have learned from other countries in a context of those other countries responding to these issues in their defence forces to try to ensure we have terms of reference that are broad and based on international experience as well as our own.

I know Deputy Connolly says we should not raise the issue of the competence of the judge. I have spoken to the judge and she is satisfied from the terms of reference that she will be able to do a substantial piece of work. Of course, if there are problems along the way, I will hear about that and we will have to make changes, and if she recommends new structures, then we will respond to that too. The whole point is to try to get recommendations back to me and to Government so we can act on those as soon as possible. We hope to be able to do that and to have an interim report in the summer and a final report before the end of the year, which is what we are trying to do.

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