Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

In the first instance, I thank the Deputy for raising the question. I commend the courage of those women and indeed men, who have shared their experience and have come forward through Women of Honour and Men and Women of Honour, and also current serving members of the Defence Forces who are not members of those specific groups, who have also been very candid and frank in sharing their experiences with me in recent times and with the Department. Only for them, the full scale of this would not have been revealed, which led to the establishment of the scoping review and the independent review group. The group met quite a number of people and many volunteered this information to the group. Raiseaconcern had been established by my predecessor over a year ago, which is a confidential service where people can come and share their experiences. I met with the people who oversee Raiseaconcern. There is a very strong alignment between what is in the independent review group's report, what has come up with Raiseaconcern and in the Defence Forces independent review. It is quite shocking. As the report says, at the heart of it is a culture of fear and people not being in a position or fearful of putting their head above the parapet for fear of reprisal or because it would be a career-ending move. Promotion is a significant part of the dynamic within the Defence Forces. The view of a lot of members is that if you make a complaint you are without question limiting your prospects for promotion in the future. Hence, through the chain of command, there was a system and dynamic, which in its own way acted to suppress what was emerging.

We have to deal fundamentally and radically with all those issues, including the training culture, the chain of command, control and the entire ethos of what a modern defence force should be about, in terms of the threats and challenges we have had.

I am mindful of the quote from the report the Deputy provided on the resistance to change. I have confidence in the Chief of Staff’s commitment to change and reform. Also important is the statutory inquiry we will now establish. It will be a statutory fact-finding inquiry. The independent review group acknowledges it is not quite a fact-finding exercise and recommends the establishment of one. There will have to be significant reforms of that whole structure in the Defence Forces. I will bring proposals to Government on that aspect later.

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