Ivana Bacik (Dublin Bay South, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Tánaiste for the response, in particular his comment that he has an open mind on the plans for the inquiry. That is a very fair response. I agree with him that it would be positive to move swiftly on this. I think he has said he hopes to bring the recommendations to Cabinet next week. I see that the terms of reference for the inquiry are not on next week's Dáil schedule at present. We would certainly be very happy to facilitate their inclusion in order that we could move ahead on this. I listened carefully to some of the points the Tánaiste has made about what is a creative approach to looking at how best to meet the requirements of Women of Honour - for example, through having capacity for in camerahearings and so forth. That is very welcome. We want to see progress on this, clearly, and we welcome and appreciate that there is ongoing engagement with members of the Women of Honour group. Given, however, their allegations and the immense courage they have shown in bringing forward all these issues, the allegations have to be addressed to address the bigger issue of recruitment and retention at a time when we see our Defence Forces having a falling strength, with numbers now below 8,000. That is really the greatest threat to our security. In the context of the recent and rather controversial consultative forum on international security policy, that is certainly a point we will make in our Labour submission to the forum, that we need to address the issue of falling numbers and we need to ensure we maintain our proud tradition of international peacekeeping, adherence to the triple lock and military neutrality while, of course, being very clear in our political expression of support - for example, for the people of Ukraine under such appalling bombardment from Russia this week and for the past year and more.

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