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

-----to make a recommendation to create an independent oversight body with the Secretary General on it, by the way. There is a reason it is called independent oversight. The independent review body recommended that it be independent of the Defence Forces, whether we like it or not. That was the recommendation. When it came out and was published, every one of the Opposition Deputies was in full high dudgeon and said that never again should this happen and never again should we allow something like this to happen.

I am implementing a recommendation of that same group, which went into great detail on all of this issues and which, by the way, some members of the Defence Forces do not agree with or accept. I would refer people to the contributions in the other House by some Members who raised serious credibility issues around the independent review group report, as if it went over the top. This was said and has also been said by people within the defence community. Let us call a spade a spade. There was also a view that previous iterations of monitoring groups simply did not work because they were of a representative nature. RACO and others no not like me saying that, but I am going to say it because that is the truth of how things have unfolded. They give confidence in a grievance process.

The job of the oversight body is to review the grievance process, Deputy Boyd Barrett, so that we create a new grievance process that will be truly independent and give members of the Defence Forces confidence that when they bring a complaint, they will not be penalised. Many rank-and-file members, when you meet them, would say that if they bring a complaint or if they make a protected disclosure, it is more or less the end of their career. We are trying to change that. That is why we are having an independent oversight body. That is what the whole thing is about.

See this speech in context