Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

We are finally, as a whole of society, shining a light into the very structure of our society and, in particular, on the role of women and how women are treated here. Decades of campaigning for equality, during which incremental hard-won steps were made on that journey, still leave us a long way to travel.

This House reflected the shared outrage of the Irish people at the brutal murder of Ashling Murphy recently. Many more incidents of assault and harassment have come into the public domain since those statements were made here. That day, we committed to the people of Ireland that the issue of violence, abuse, domestic or otherwise, and sexual assault would be rooted out of all areas of Irish life. All of us, across all of these benches, committed to keeping a firm and constant focus on these matters. I believe this motion falls squarely into this commitment, and I commend those who have moved it.

Military structures have been, for generations, overwhelmingly male and hierarchical. That is true worldwide. The opening of the Irish military to women, when 38 women became the first female recruits into our Defence Forces in October 1981, marked a sea change. All institutions reflect the societies they exist in, good and bad. If bullying, harassment, sexual misconduct and discrimination are issues for our society as a whole, they are likely to be issues for institutions in that society, such as the military. In fact, they are likely to be amplified by an institution that is structured on a hierarchy with a strong code of internal discipline and loyalty.

In that context, we, the public and their representatives depend on brave individuals to call out wrongdoing and stand up and demand proper, impartial and thorough investigations, the only function of which is to determine the truth, wherever it may lie and wherever the chips may fall. The women of honour are those brave women. They are willing to stand up and demand that their voices and those of others be heard and fully acted upon.

I was privileged to draft and guide through these Houses the protected disclosures legislation, the so-called whistleblowers Act. During that process, I listened to many cases of suppressed truth. I examined many legal models to try to provide the best possible assistance to any person in a workplace, be it private or public, who witnesses or experiences wrongdoing and wants to call that out. It is clear to me, after all of our debates and determination to build the best legal protection, that actually taking the step of calling out wrongdoing is very hard. It is always infinitely easier to stay silent, to not draw attention to oneself and to endure, rather than to step out from the crowd and say that something needs to be addressed.

Too often - we have seen examples - the price paid by the whistleblower is a very high price indeed. Therefore, in justice and in fairness what should our response be to the matters before us now - the brave and shocking testimony of women who shared their experiences of physical abuse, harassment, coercion and sexual assault? There are others. Men have also experienced abuse within our Defence Forces.

I know the Minister, Deputy Coveney, to be a decent and fair-minded man. He has proposed an independent judge-led review. The day that he announced the review he stated, "We need to establish this critical Independent Review to ensure that the Defence Forces is a safe workplace for all current serving members while also reviewing historical allegations". The Minister of State has outlined this review to the House. He set out its membership and said that an interim report is to be provided within six months and a final report within 12 months. However, the stated intention of the review as set out by the Minister is in fact two separate and distinct aims: first, to ensure that the Defence Forces is a safe workplace, which must be a priority; and second, to review so-called historical allegations.

Many of us have long experience in this House. Most of us know that without all the powers of compellability, taking sworn evidence in public and so on available to a statutory inquiry, an adequate investigation of the serious cases of abuse and misconduct that have been set out by the Women of Honour is highly unlikely to be fully ventilated. That is our shared experience. If we want to know the full facts, and find how these things happened and what the consequences are, we need a statutory inquiry to look into these matters.

Separately, there is an urgent requirement to achieve the Minister's first stated objective. He is an employer. He is obliged morally and legally to provide a safe workplace for the members of the Defence Forces who turn up every day to do the unique work they undertake. I firmly believe that the Minister needs to think again. He is a decent man, as I have said and he is well intentioned. I believe he has listened carefully to the voices of those who have suffered, but it is clear that each of his aims cannot be achieved by the mechanism he is now proposing.

Having regard to the Women of Honour and their experience and having regard to the thousands of women and men currently serving, a different model is required. Perhaps a twin model is required, one to examine the cases of abuse and a second to swiftly put in place robust and acceptable mechanisms for addressing complaints which replaces the current practices and mechanisms which clearly are not fit for purpose.

The fact that in recent days we have heard further allegations of sexual assault, which nobody can categorise as historical, requires us to take action and requires the Minister to take action. It cannot be delayed. The overwhelming majority of our defence personnel need to be assured that they have a safe working environment and that whatever culture existed in the past which undermined that safe working environment must be eliminated. We need robust mechanisms to deal with them. Therefore, the Government needs to put in place a safe working environment. That can be done swiftly. Separately, it needs to establish a statutory inquiry to provide the full unvarnished truth to those honourable women who have set out their experiences for all of us to see.

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