Martin Kenny (Sligo-Leitrim, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The truth is that people throughout the country were horrified when they heard Katie Hannon's programme last September as it laid bare something people could never have imagined would happen within the Defence Forces. I guess most people would have considered the Defence Forces as a place with a command structure and controlled environment. Of course, as we know from other institutions, even with that structure, predators can feel they have major opportunity. That has been the case for these women, who very bravely came forward and laid bare their souls to the country. They have been the victims of sexual assault, rape and abuse, as well as coercion and coercive control in that structure.

One of the biggest tragedies of this is that when these women went to their senior officers to complain and tried to get this dealt with, it was hushed up, covered up and they were shut up and put back in the corner. That is worthy of an inquiry in itself, without ever talking about the abuse they went through. We are a country with a long history of dealing with similar cases in various institutions, and it would be very remiss of the Government to go down the road of reinforcing the old ways rather than opening new ones. This is an opportunity to demonstrate that times have changed and things are different.

It is a relatively new position that has been uncovered in recent years in the Defence Forces. Nobody can say it has been going on for years and nobody knew about it, although perhaps people did. It is certainly something that was not discussed in this arena until very recently. The Government now has the opportunity to handle this correctly and demonstrate it will do it properly. We all believed the Minister, in fairness, when he met the Women of Honour and said this would be a priority and he would do what was required to show things would be different. Yet he has returned to this notion of having an internal review, which is totally inappropriate and wrong. It reinforces the wrong that happened in the first place. It is retraumatising these women, and we think of the courage they had to come forward and do the programme with Katie Hannon. They told their stories to the public but the Minister and the Government are turning their backs on them, which is an absolute disgrace. It would be a disgrace for the Government to continue down this path.

There must be a reflection on where the Government is going with this matter. The Government should recognise that this is an opportunity for it to do something historic in this country and do something right by women. It has never been the case in the past.

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