Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

That is what is being said. We need to be careful not to undermine what has been a strength of our democracy, namely, our apolitical Defence Forces. That is important, irrespective of who is in government. We are all birds of passage. We hope this legislation will apply for a significant period. Much of what is in the Bill is already in regulations and, in fact, may be less restrictive than the existing Defence Forces regulations.

We wrote to the committee on 2 April. It is unacceptable to say that we did not take on board some of the committee's proposals. That should be withdrawn. I was going to make a statement to the committee on a previous occasion but the Chairman asked me not to so I deferred. The allegation has been made. On 2 April, we conceded on two key points that were put forward by representative organisations and members of the committee in respect of whether military judges and prosecutors should be allowed to be members of RACO. I took the points that were made and withdrew our proposition. The committee did not mention that in its report even though it received correspondence from us on 2 April. We must be fair to all sides. I make that point.

Military management gave very strong advice on this matter. If the chief of defence, CHOD, recommended in Deputy Howlin's amendment No. 1 were in place, we would not be debating this issue. That is not the reason I will not accept other amendments. There is a fundamental point about the inclusion of "in uniform". That is what the legislation states, as well as "otherwise making himself or herself identifiable". It is about identifiability.

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