Bríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

In line with what the last speaker had to say about the pay of Defence Forces personnel, the conditions under which they have lived and the housing they have had over the years, with many not being given houses and living in the backs of their cars in order to operate as soldiers or naval personnel, I marvel at the Government's attempt to spend more money on defence but not on the Defence Forces themselves. The idea that we would join PESCO and increase the proportion of our budget that goes towards military hardware rather than improving the lives and terms and conditions of the ordinary decent men, women and others who work for our Defence Forces is quite obscene.

Today, The Irish Timescarried an article reporting that the Tánaiste is going to legislate to get rid of the triple lock as soon as possible. Would whatever resources that are to be put into investigating whether the Women of Honour are entitled to give evidence to this tribunal not better be spent on giving the people of the country a chance to vote in a referendum on whether they want to ditch neutrality with haste, as the Tánaiste seems to want to do?

The Women of Honour have asked me to raise a couple of questions. Some have probably already been asked. I was out at a protest for Palestine and so missed all of the discussion. Those involved in setting the terms of reference may have inadvertently excluded many members of the Defence Forces, including the Women of Honour, for the very understandable reason that many of these members did not engage with the complaints process that existed. Will the Tánaiste please clarify-----

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