Gary Gannon (Dublin Central, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

The Social Democrats welcomes the publication of the report on the Defence Forces, Óglaigh na hÉireann, by the Commission on the Defence Forces. The report offers an insight into the current situation in the Defence Forces and offers recommendations that can help the organisation to meet the challenges of the future, while at the same time creating a safe and positive working environment for all Defence Forces personnel. Since the founding of the State 100 years ago, personnel in Ireland's Defence Forces, Óglaigh na hÉireann, have defended the economic, political and social freedoms we enjoy. We tend to forget or shrug off that during the founding years, the Emergency period and the Cold War, members of the Defence Forces prepared for and met any eventuality presented to them by way of domestic or foreign threats. In partnership with An Garda Síochána, the Defence Forces have, time and again, protected the State from internal threats and, in more recent decades, the aid to civil power relationship has evolved to take on transnational terrorism, human trafficking and drug interdiction, with joint air and naval maritime defence and security patrols taking place in Ireland's exclusive economic zone. In addition to their routine defence of State assets and their maritime defence and security operations, the Defence Forces continue to aid civil powers in air ambulance and search and rescue missions in extreme weather and aid local authorities as and when required.

We should never forget that since the founding of the State, members of the Defence Forces have lost their lives and suffered physical or mental injury defending and protecting our freedoms and those of people elsewhere. I would state the exact figure for how many Defence Forces personnel have lost their lives in domestic service but Ireland has a convenient amnesia around the reality of the stresses and strains put on the personnel and their families from the tasks assigned to them by the Government. All of that is before we take into consideration Ireland's overseas deployments. Since 1955, this country has embraced the collective security mechanisms of the United Nations. Then, as now, the Government understood that Ireland is part of a global community and that a security threat anywhere in the world can affect us. Since the late 1950s, Ireland has committed its diplomats, aides, members of the Defence Forces and An Garda Síochána to the remote and far reaches of the globe to deal with a wide range of crisis management issues from natural disasters, the effects of interstate and intrastate conflicts, and poverty. Through peacekeeping, peacebuilding, peace enforcement and crisis prevention, Ireland's personnel have continuously put their lives on the line to bring stability to conflict regions, ensure the restoration of human rights and allow communities to go safely to work, vote freely and have their children gain an education.

Ireland is proud to be the only nation to have an unbroken record of service to blue helmet peacekeeping going back to 1958. Since then, Irish peacekeepers have served in more than 40 peacekeeping operations around the world, including Afghanistan, the Balkans, East Timor, Rwanda, the Mediterranean and Lebanon, to name just a few. Irish Defence Forces personnel have completed more than 70,000 individual tours of overseas duty since 1958. This service has not been without cost. To date, 86 members of the Defence Forces have given their lives in the service of peace. With the evolution of the European Union and its Common Foreign and Security policy and defence policy, Ireland has committed itself to the understanding that it is part of a community, the borders of which stretch from the mid-Atlantic to eastern Europe, the Arctic Circle to north Africa and the Middle East. The geographical scale of the EU, along with its global interests, has stretched Ireland's defence and security parameters even further.

Over the past two decades, the world has been challenged by increasing threats across the two main strategic paradigms, that is, traditional defence and security, and, in addition, a new strategic challenge involving ambiguous threats in the grey zone. Ireland has not remained isolated from either the old or emerging threats. Transnational terrorism, climate change as a threat multiplier, hybrid warfare and the return of geopolitics have demonstrated the new and complex relationship between all three strategic paradigms. Conflicts in Afghanistan, the Middle East and the Sahara region in central and north Africa and quasi wars and tensions in eastern Europe have created displaced peoples, a breeding ground for criminality and transnational terrorism, human trafficking, and collapsing governance and human rights. In a collective response, Ireland has deployed personnel to Afghanistan, Chad, Georgia, Mali, the Mediterranean and Syria, to name a few. In addition, Defence Forces personnel have undertaken expeditions to Libya and Afghanistan.

Rather than praising and showering our armed forces with the admiration and improved conditions they deserve, their members continue to suffer from poor working conditions, discrepancies in pay, reduced ranks and inadequate resources and equipment. How many times has the State forgotten to book flights home for overseas units? That is a reminder to them of just how much the State cares. Instead of complaining, however, they follow orders and get on with it as best they can. Rather than evolving to meet the challenges of a changing defence and security environment in Ireland, the State has systematically reduced its Defence Forces since the publication of the 1999 White Paper. After the establishment of a Permanent Defence Force of 10,500-plus and a Reserve Defence Force of 12,500, the reorganisation of 2010 to 2012, combined with the decentralising of long-standing headquarters, sent shock waves through the ranks of the armed forces from which they have not yet recovered. In the name of austerity, more barracks were closed, units disappeared overnight and corps were reduced to all but a cadre status. A quantifiable amount of State investment and training of expert specialists was gone with the stroke of a pen. With a defence budget that is one of the lowest in the world, the missions and deployments kept coming and the remaining ranks were stretched to breaking point. This was especially noticeable in the smaller corps such as the Naval Service, Air Corps and the ordnance and medical corps, which struggled to meet their daily operational requirements at home while continuing to support overseas missions. The PDF is now operating at an average of more than 1,000 below its current 9,500 establishment. The RDF has, in effect, been dismantled, with an establishment of 4,069 and a headcount of 1,622.

Disgruntled, demoralised and combating the rising cost of living, serving and retired personnel, along with their families, began to take to the streets. The Government and the nation did not seem to care. Then came the Covid-19 crisis, the cyberattack on the HSE and geopolitical tensions. The reality of the complexities of 21st century defence and security has begun to hit home. Defence Forces assets could not be deployed en massefor any of those events because they barely exist any more. Embarrassingly, the Government had to rush the procurement of a PC-12 to bring home Defence Forces personnel stranded on overseas deployment and to carry out Covid-19 logistics operations. Again, the media report on Royal Air Force assets patrolling and monitoring activities off our maritime and air space rather than the reality faced by our personnel overseas.

Nobody expects the Defence Forces to be poised and ready to tackle a belligerent invader. That is not the vision we hold for our Defence Forces. What is expected, however, or rather what we owe the personnel of Óglaigh na hÉireann who daily put themselves on the line to ensure our freedoms, is our respect, gratitude and an improvement in the conditions in which we ask them to operate. It is the responsibility of Government to ensure military personnel work in an environment that is safe and free from a culture of fear and secure in the knowledge they will not be stranded overseas. It is our responsibility as a Parliament to guarantee our Defence Forces are properly funded and resourced to meet the defence and security challenges of the 21st century.

The report makes some insightful and valuable observations, including the need for a more flexible command structure, a veteran support office and transformational change to modernise the organisational culture and its human resources strategy and practices. The report recommends the immediate establishment of a codified, top-down capacity development planning process through the creation of a permanent civil military structure in order to embed capability deployment within the Department and the Defence Forces. There is a recommendation for a graduation of levels of ambition and required levels of capability to meet those levels of ambition. The development of a national maritime security strategy and a national aviation security strategy to go alongside it are advised. Before the Government approves or implements these recommendations, we must take into consideration the Defence Forces themselves, what personnel think of the report and which recommendations the general staff have made. We must take into consideration the disruption such changes will cause to some personnel and their families. Would it be prudent, for example, to undertake an exact capability audit of what is required to, first, bring the Defence Forces up to standard and, second, ensure they are able to move forward and meet the challenges ahead?

The report does not give an insightful overview into retention and recruitment of staff, issues that have a long-term effect on the Defence Forces. Remuneration and service conditions are key enablers in this area. Remuneration must reflect extra hours worked and access to normal duty patterns while carrying out routine assignments in other countries. This is especially true of the requirement for three years of marking time in terms of pay at the beginning of members' career, which needs to be abolished immediately. Service conditions must ensure personnel are free from bullying, harassment and a culture of fear. To that end, external expertise must be engaged to improve training and policy development in this area. The report points out that turnover in the Defence Forces is no higher than in most industries, but it does not take into consideration that hundreds of members are paying thousands to break their contracts and leave. If retention is not a problem, why are the ranks below the full establishment? Why were the ranks not refilled during the call-out in the early days of the pandemic? The lack of respect for personnel has been highlighted in particular by the issues raised by the Women of Honour group. I do not have enough time to do justice to the plight its members have suffered and continue to suffer.

This situation must end. The Government can approve spending for new equipment and accommodation and a refit, for instance, of the Curragh Camp, but there needs to be personnel to carry out deployments, fly the aircraft and sail the ships. Elsewhere, states have taken action to ameliorate the strains on their armed forces and encourage retention.

Other nations have implemented technical specialist and staff ranks, with civilians filling non-operational roles, and having active reserves to capture trained personnel who leave, rather than losing their skill sets. They also have forms of university training corps that allow for those with specialist, sought-after skills to join their armed forces in a permanent or reserve capacity.

In the space of ten minutes I cannot do justice to the amount of insight we can give to this commission report. There is an obligation on us all to respond and I look forward to working with the Minister in order to do that.

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