Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I sincerely thank Deputy Clarke and Sinn Féin for bringing this important motion before the House. The Minister for Defence, Deputy Coveney, has established the judge-led independent review, but this is not good enough because it is not what the Women of Honour group wants. The group has criticised this approach and said that such investigations into alleged sexual assaults "still remain to be dealt with within the military system". It has further said:

It is time for an independent public statutory inquiry and for the civil and criminal laws of the State to be applied to the Defence Forces .... The national laws which apply to the rest of the citizens of our State should apply to the men and women of our Defence Forces.

The Women of Honour group, which comprises women whose careers in the Defence Forces have been blighted by abuse, has stated that the recent case at McKee Barracks, and other cases like it, are simply unacceptable. The group has repeated its rejection of the Minister’s proposal to establish a judge-led independent review to look at issues related to sexual misconduct, bullying, harassment and discrimination in the Defence Forces. It has further stated:

Military police, in reality, are subject to the chain of command and act on behalf of the Defence Forces, investigate internal matters and then send a file to the Director of Military Prosecutions. It remains the case that the military legal system applies military law to address matters - of the military, by the military and for the military.

The group has also said that as well it being time for an independent public statutory inquiry, it is time for civil and criminal laws to be applied to the Defence Forces. It believes that "the frequency of [these] dreadful allegations" has resulted in "a toxic culture of [the] acceptance of cover-ups and victim blaming", which should of course not be tolerated. The group has further stated that the situation "merits nothing less than a public statutory investigative process as the first step towards the radical change needed".

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