Cathal Berry (Kildare South, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I support the general thrust of those comments. I wish to speak to amendments Nos. 3 and 5. I agree with the two Deputies that the phrase "or matter of Government policy" is unnecessary. It is probably superfluous. The relevant sentence could very easily stop after the phrase "in relation to a political matter". A tradition dating back 30 or 40 years means members of the Defence Forces rightly cannot protest about certain matters. Wives and partners of Defence Forces personnel are regularly called upon in this regard. There was an organisation called the National Army Spouses Association, NASA, about 30 years ago, and more recently we have had Wives and Partners of the Defence Forces. I do not see why we need to have an overly restricted additional subparagraph.

As Deputy Howlin just mentioned, when we compare what applies to the Civil Defence to what applies to the Defence Forces, we see that the Civil Defence has the provision in question in secondary legislation. Do we really need to enshrine the proposal in primary legislation, which locks it in and makes it very difficult to change? Deputy Howlin mentioned the Civil Defence code of practice. To me, a code of practice is the appropriate location for these types of restrictions.

Those are the two points I want to make. If we could delete the last four words of that sentence, it would make perfect sense. We should also give consideration to whether this should be secondary, rather than primary, legislation.

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