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

One of the big attractions of the Defence Forces is that a person can continue his or her education, and in many cases it is paid for by the Defence Forces. A big part of the Defence Forces is the opportunity to upskill and to get promoted. One of the changes we are looking to make is to provide more certainty and transparency around those promotion opportunities for career advancement and so on within the Defence Forces, and to back this up with the opportunities to upskill and to return to education, with a view to this benefiting the skill set within the Defence Forces.

On the digital aspect, in the commission we are being asked to provide what is called a "cyber command" within the Defence Forces in the future. This means a more structured and larger cyber and digital expertise within the Defence Forces. We have some good people in the cyber and digital unit in our Defence Forces but it needs to be a bigger unit and it needs to be plugged in more directly to the Chief of Staff, and what will become the headquarters for the Defence Forces, and likewise on gender.

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