Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Like others who have spoken on this very important issue, I take no pleasure in participating in today’s statements. While we rightly congratulate An Tánaiste and Minister for Defence on both the speedy publication of the report of the independent review group into the Defence Forces and his commitment to implementing a comprehensive programme of immediate actions to address the shocking findings of this report, we should both acknowledge and regret that it took a sustained campaign by the Women of Honour group to bring us to this point. I welcome our visitors to the Public Gallery. Through their work over the years, and more recently in their campaigning, they have done the State a great service.

It is vitally important that the actions outlined by An Tánaiste are taken immediately. It is almost two years since RTÉ broadcast Katie Hannon’s harrowing “Women of Honour” documentary on radio. In that programme, the Women of Honour group highlighted just a small sample of the horrors and injustices experienced by both the women and men of the Defence Forces. As the group stated one year later in October 2022:

Individually we all had our own experiences and challenges to deal with. However, collectively we decided to stand together to empower ourselves in the face of bullies and we hoped to empower others to do the same.

Their tireless persistence and calmness in the face of what we should now acknowledge was bureaucratic inertia is not just commendable; it is inspirational. They have shown us that you either stand for change or you do not stand at all.

I am most pleased to see that their primary and long-standing call for the establishment of a statutory inquiry has been agreed to. I commend An Tánaiste and Minister for Defence on moving to establish this statutory inquiry, which I hope can conduct the bulk of its hearings in public, and for committing to establish an external oversight body on a statutory basis. These are important decisions, both for the short- and long-term future of our Defence Forces. Together, they will contribute to the betterment of the Defence Forces. This will be achieved through a thorough investigation, with identification of all issues and contributory factors, and a comprehensive understanding of the organisation’s failures.

The regret is that is has taken us almost two years to get to this point. We should thank the chair of the independent review group, Ms Justice Bronagh O'Hanlon, and the other members of this group, for producing such a stark and frank report. As An Tánaiste remarked, the review group pulled no punches in its findings. This is indeed a watershed moment for our Defence Forces. Like many other Members of this House, I regularly engage socially with both former and current members of the Defence Forces. Many of these personnel are close personal friends. In recent weeks and months I have asked many of them about this issue. While none of those with whom I have spoken had personally experienced bullying, harassment, discrimination or sexual harassment, I was struck, and, indeed, dismayed, by how many said they were not surprised or shocked by the allegations.

More worrying was the extent to which they said that the mantra - then and now - was still one of "Never complain, never explain". While the personal experience of the majority of those who serve in uniform and proudly wear those brass buttons emblazoned with the harp of Ireland and the letters “IV” for the Irish Volunteers may be a happy and constructive one, there is no denying that this is not the case for a large number. To our shame, many of those are women.

As Minister for Defence, An Tánaiste knows that the greatest challenge he faces is delivering on the level of ambition 2 goal of the Defence Forces commission report, namely, increasing Defence Forces strength to 11,500 by 2028. That is a huge challenge but one made more difficult by the fact that the Defence Forces strength today is over 1,500 personnel below what it should be. We should have 9,500 women and men in uniform today. In reality, we have fewer than 8,000. The challenge is not just to recruit an additional 400 more men and women each year from now to 2028; it is to double that.

The only way we can viably achieve this not overly ambitious target of increasing Defence Forces strength to 11,500 is to recruit an additional 750 personnel per year from now until 2028, including a higher percentage of women. Let us recall that we had 10,500 members of the Defence Forces just over a decade and a half ago.

It is vital that the toxic culture of hypermasculinity, which, as the independent review group report says, views women as occupying a low status in the Defence Forces, is driven out and eradicated. It is somewhat ironic that our Defence Forces are internationally respected for the high-quality training they provide to officers from other defence forces in the provision of fundamental human rights at the United Nations Training School Ireland at the Curragh. We are all proud of that school and its work but we must practise at home what we preach abroad. The actions of the Tánaiste and Minister for Defence are an important step in achieving this but it is just one step out of many that are needed. We must make sure that membership of Óglaigh na hÉireann is seen as both a fulfilling and rewarding career. We must address the recruitment and retention crisis that has long faced our Defence Forces. Only a few weeks ago, Deputy Howlin, Deputy Durkan and I discussed this matter of the Defence Forces with An Tánaiste at question time. We must stop telling ourselves that pay and conditions are not a barrier to recruitment and retention; they clearly are. We must listen more attentively to what the representative groups, the Representative Association of Commissioned Officers, RACO, and the Permanent Defence Force Other Ranks Representative Association, PDFORRA, are telling us. The numbers do not lie, and nor do the stories of Defence Forces members having to sleep in cars between duties as they cannot afford to travel home or live closer to their posts. These may be isolated instances but they have no place in today’s world for people who are serving our country with distinction. No man or woman loses their basic rights to respect and a secure working environment at home just because he or she dons the country’s uniform. If anything, our obligations to those who wear that uniform should be increased, not diminished, as they are willing to put their own safety at risk to preserve ours.

I have the privilege of representing two Border counties. A few weeks ago in this Chamber, we discussed the proud tradition we have had in Cavan over many decades and the family connection. The Tánaiste met some of those people in the Lebanon recently. These are families in which generation after generation have served our country not just at home but have done us proud abroad as well. One of the proudest days I remember as a public representative in my home town in Cavan was the day the then Minister for Defence, our former party colleague Michael Smith, reviewed the infantry group being deployed to Lebanon at that time. It was a proud moment for all of us from County Cavan, Cavan town and for the families whose members were leaving, wearing the Irish uniform to don the United Nations uniform and do our country proud in some of the most dangerous places in the world. We must never forget that and the important role our Defence Forces play in ensuring our foreign policy and standing as a country are respected throughout the world.

I commend the Tánaiste on his reaction to this report today. I hope all the necessary actions can be implemented as rapidly as possible. That is the least the people who have led this campaign deserve.

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