Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú) | Oireachtas source

I am disappointed that the Minister for Defence is not here. Perhaps there is a reasonable excuse for that. Maybe he has an important job to do. However, this is a very important debate and one of enormous gravity. It is a debate on a matter the Minister is directly responsible for so it is disappointing that he is not here.

The Women of Honour are simply women who wanted to work in the service of the State. These women put their lives on the line and at risk for the rest of the citizens of this country. Shockingly, their service was met with assault, rape, abuse, bullying and discrimination in a State service. Given that their employer was the Government itself, it is incredible that this was allowed to happen. When they sought justice within their employment location, justice was blocked and prevented. On many occasions, instead of the perpetrators of the abuse being punished, the women themselves were punished while seeking justice. It appears that there was a culture within the Defence Forces which sought to protect the organisation against attack. Where have we seen that before? Unfortunately, practically every organisation instinctively feels the need to protect itself from those who are seeking justice or reform of the organisation.

These women were forced to break their anonymity and to tell their absolutely harrowing stories. It is extremely hard for anyone to open up publicly about the shocking wrongs done to them. I give full credit to these women for the work they have done. This country owes a serious debt of gratitude to those women for what they are seeking to do and the manner in which they have sought to do it. Some of these women have taken on the equivalent of an unpaid full-time job to achieve reform in the Defence Forces. In case the Government has not noticed, that is its job, for which its members are very well paid. I also give credit to Katie Hannon for her documentary, which first gave voice to these women on the national airwaves.

The Women of Honour group met with the Minister for Defence, Deputy Coveney, a number of months ago and he promised to finally listen to them. He also committed to giving them a role in the path to justice. He stated that he would facilitate their shaping of the terms of reference of any investigation that happened. I have worked closely with the Women of Honour over recent months and I was quite shocked that this was the Minister's response. I was pleasantly surprised that the Government was doing this because, in my experience, governments do not do that. Governments normally protect the organisation that is under strain. For decades, governments have protected organisation after organisation against those who have sought to reform them. However, my cynical distrust of the Government has proven correct.

In practically a mirror image of what is happening to the women involved in the CervicalCheck scandal, Ministers have spoken in the media and in this Dáil in measured tones about their shock at what is happening to people in this country. They have said that they will root out the causes of the difficulties and make sure they never happen again. However, similarly to the 300 women affected by the CervicalCheck scandal who find themselves having to go before the High Court to seek justice, the Women of Honour have been let down with regard to the promises given to them by this Government. The Government's words in respect of the Women of Honour have proven meaningless.

The Minister’s credibility stands in stark contrast with the actions of the Women of Honour. His credibility has been hammered. He has reneged on the promise of a fully independent and external commission of investigation into bullying, discrimination and sexual violence in the Defence Forces. He has also reneged on his promise to tackle the systemic resistance within the Defence Forces which prevents victims and survivors from achieving justice. I ask the Minister of State to make sure we draw a line and to ensure that Ministers' actions match their words and that the Government provides justice for what probably would be the first time in the history of our governments.

I ask that the Minister of State go back to the well, speak to these women again, allow them to have influence over the terms of reference and ensure they are provided with what they deserve, namely, a full commission of investigation into what is happening.

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