Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I propose to take Questions Nos. 11, 25, 26, 53, 190 and 197 together.

The Commission on the Defence Forces was established on foot of a commitment in the programme for Government. As Minister for Defence, I welcomed the publication of the report of the commission on 9 February. The commission has undertaken a significant body of work encompassing wide-ranging terms of reference. It recommends significant changes for the Defence Forces and defence provision in Ireland. It covers high-level Defence Forces structures, defence capabilities, organisation, culture and human resources, the Reserve Defence Force and funding. It is no coincidence that four chapters of the commission's report focused on how we deal with people in the Defence Forces with regard to culture, people management, complaint management and so on.

Given the significance of the recommendations contained in the report, detailed consideration was undertaken by my Department and the Defence Forces, working together over a period of five months. This involved significant interdepartmental consultation. My officials and I have engaged with stakeholders to ascertain their views. Following this engagement, I returned to the Government with a high-level action plan and a memo for Government, which were approved on 12 July. This involved the approval of a move to LOA 2, as set out in the capability framework devised by the Commission on the Defence Forces. This will result in the defence budget rising from €1.1 billion to €1.5 billion, in 2022 prices, by 2028. In other words, the budget is index-linked. This is the largest increase in defence funding in the history of the State and will allow for the required substantial transformation and investment in recruitment and equipment that were identified in the commission's report. The recent budget for 2023 included an increase of €67 million over the 2022 budget and an additional €47 million to provide for the agreed increase in pay. This budget includes an increase of almost 25% in capital funding and demonstrates the Government’s strong commitment to support the transformation of the Defence Forces into a modern and agile military force capable of responding to increasingly complex security threats.

The move to LOA 2 will require an additional 2,000 personnel over and above the current establishment. Work has already commenced on this with the recently announced recruitment campaign, ‘"Be More". Some specific initiatives include the immediate commencement of planning for military radar capabilities, including primary radar, and the establishment of an office of reserve affairs with the priority objective of developing a regeneration plan for the Reserve Defence Force. The high-level action plan was also approved.

The high-level action plan set out 38 early actions to be completed within six months of the Government decision, including immediately progressing the following pay structure measures: the provision of immediate access to the seagoing service commitment scheme to direct entry personnel in the Naval Service; the removal of the requirement for a three-star private or able seaman to mark time for the first three years at that rank; and the payment of the full rate of military service allowance to all personnel at the rank of three-star private or able seaman, which is essentially a pay increase of €5,000 a year.

The high-level action plan set out proposed implementation and oversight structures. An implementation oversight group has been established, which met for the first time on 3 October. Subsequently, Ms Julie Sinnamon was appointed as the independent chair of the implementation oversight group. A second meeting took place on 17 November. A high-level steering board has been established, chaired by the Secretary General of the Department of the Taoiseach, to oversee the implementation. A civil and military implementation management office, IMO, has been established to support the implementation of the overall transformation programme required to implement recommendations from the Report of the Commission on the Defence Forces. The initial focus of the IMO is the implementation of the 38 early actions as set out in the high-level action plan and the development of an implementation plan. Reporting mechanisms have been established to facilitate regular progress reports on the early actions to the IMO and the civil and military strategic management committee. Significant progress has been made on the implementation of these 38 early actions, with the vast majority of early actions at an advanced stage. I have every confidence that the majority, if not all, of the early actions will be completed within the agreed timeframe.

The Report of the Commission on the Defence Forces and the current events in Ukraine are prompting an open debate and consideration of our defence requirements. I fully accept there is an ongoing requirement to consider whether the capabilities we maintain are appropriate, having regard to the security environment, the roles we wish the Defence Forces to undertake and likely risks.

I know the Deputy appreciates and understands the need for structures with regard to delivery to ensure policy certainty and on-time delivery. He has delivered such structures as a Minister in multiple briefs in the past. That is the kind of approach we are trying to take here. We want to have clear structures, reporting structures and people who are responsible for delivery and who will hold me and others to account if we do not deliver on what we have committed to over a period a time. There is going to be six years of action, development, growth, expansion and increased investment. We have an awful lot of work to do given the trends we have seen in recent years, which have continued into this year, whereby we are losing numbers rather than gaining them. I hope that next year will be a turning point.

See this speech in context