Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am grateful to have this opportunity. I had two meetings going on at the same time, which is pretty difficult at the best of times.

I fully endorse, support and accept the recommendations of the review. The Ceann Comhairle and I represent a county that has long-established traditions with the Defence Forces. I cannot understand why, over the past number of years we have become apologetic about our Defence Forces, as if they were unnecessary. There are people in this House who will tell us they are unnecessary and who question why, if we are a neutral country we need the Defence Forces? The answer to that question is simple. We may have to defend our neutrality as well. I refer to the western Balkans, where a few years ago there were appalling outrages. The issue was raised in this House several times at that time. We could complain as much as we liked, wring our hands and tear out our hair but we could do nothing about it. In that case, NATO was brought in to deal with the situation and it did. The UN was side-tracked at the time because it was ill-equipped to deal with the magnitude of the forces opposed to it.

It is high time we fully recognised the important role of the Defence Forces in this country. They play a pivotal role in defence and in supporting the services that we rely on in times of stress, bad weather, snowstorms and so on. Time and again, they have come out to support us. We should respond in kind, in a way that recognises their existence, the importance of the role they play and that we need them to stand up for us when we may not be able to stand up for ourselves. We should recognise also that for the past 50 years they have displayed their valour extremely well in various difficult situations all over the world. It would be a total injustice if we were to ignore that now.

I strongly support the Defence Forces for the reasons outlined. I believe those reasons will increase as time goes by. In light of the work they have done over the years and the defence the public had in them, we now need to respond and show them that we have confidence in them and they, in turn, can have confidence in us.

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