Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputies for their questions and I propose to take Question Nos. 8 to 12, inclusive, together.

The high-level action plan for the Report of the Commission on the Defence Forces, agreed by the Government in July 2022, sets out that the initial implementation and oversight structure would comprise a high-level steering board chaired by the Secretary General of the Department of the Taoiseach, an independently chaired implementation oversight group and an implementation management office. The high-level steering board, whose membership comprises the Chief of Staff of the Defence Forces, the Secretaries General of the Departments of Defence, Justice, Foreign Affairs, Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform, and Environment, Climate and Communications, and the chair of the implementation oversight committee, will hold their first meeting today.

The board will steer the implementation oversight group and provide guidance where necessary as well as acting as a clearing house for issues or blockages in the implementation of the commission’s recommendations. The implementation oversight group has met four times to date, most recently last week, and is overseeing and driving the implementation of the recommendations of the Commission. The civil-military implementation management office, which was established last year, is in the advanced stages of developing a detailed draft implementation plan and implementation of the early actions as set out in the high-level action plan under the stewardship of the oversight group. To date, approximately two thirds of these 38 additional actions have been achieved and progress continues on the remaining early actions. A comprehensive update on all the early actions will be published soon.

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