Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I am deeply grateful I am to the Women of Honour, whom I welcome to the Public Gallery, and to all the women who came forward to give first-hand accounts of their experiences, both members and former members. I too want to recognise Katie Hannon. We should not be in a position where we have to wait for RTÉ to do a "Prime Time Investigates" programme before we react to some of this horrific stuff. Time and time again, we find that we wait and wait until something appears on RTÉ but if Katie Hannon and her team had not done what they did, we would not be here today. I also want to acknowledge Senator Tom Clonan and the work he did in his report. All right-minded people are disgusted and appalled to learn what a toxic and unsafe an environment the Defence Forces are for too many women. There is bullying, harassment, discrimination, the sexual harassment of women, and worse than that. There is a statement in the report that women are viewed as occupying a low status in the Defence Forces. It is 2023. If we were looking back to something in 1723 and we saw this we might say, "My goodness, those times were awful", but this is in 2023. Cadets can be vulnerable and inexperienced and this can result in their being targeted by predatory older members who exploit such traits. This is absolutely appalling. Does the Minister accept the collapse of middle management played a significant role, due to the lack of oversight? Is it true that there are 600 plus non-commissioned officer vacancies at the moment? That in itself tells a story.

The report referred to women and the lower ranks and how those who challenged were also at risk. That is really worrying. The report cited making a complaint as being career ending, and outlined people's experiences of intimidation and acts of retaliation when they did make a complaint. It is absolutely the worst case of power and control with the sole aim of discrediting the complainant's reputation. Have we learned nothing from Maurice McCabe and others? There is a culture of fear and control. Where is the accountability? Where are the sanctions? Where is the remorse? I do not see any of these but I hope we will see them in the future, with sufficient resources to investigate and to adjudicate complaints to address the current situation, and that criminal acts be referred to An Garda Síochána. I spoke to Senator Gerard Craughwell who is in the Public Gallery earlier. He was a proud member of the Defence Forces. He summed it up quite well when he said to find them, to root them out, and to hold them to account. The vast majority of people who wear a uniform are proud to serve and really good and my thoughts are with them and their families as well, as they have to bear this as well and to look at where they proudly served. We have to have a statutory inquiry but it is important to acknowledge what my colleague Deputy Funchion said around the mother and baby homes. In the terms of reference the women themselves must be at the centre and they must be listened to right from the beginning to get those terms of reference right and to make sure their voices are heard and that this never happens again. We have an opportunity here to create a Defence Forces that everybody can be proud of and so this can never, ever happen again. I do not believe that things can never happen again unless people are held accountable for the behaviours of the past.

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