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

That is not the way I look at it. It is as if the Department is at loggerheads with the Defence Forces and it should not be. That should not be the frame around which the debate happens. There is an element of that happening in this context. This has been a relentless campaign about undermining the Secretary General's role on the oversight body. I regret that it has come to this. We have to go back to the origins of this in particular. I did not invent this or come up with this idea. The independent review body did. All the Members asked me to accept the recommendations of the independent review body. All of them went along with the resolution before the House because we were all shocked with what the independent review group said. I was determined then. I do not just take things and say things and agree it is terrible and do nothing. Some of this is not popular. I could easily say "whatever you're having yourself" or ask who else wants to go on it and say we will all go on it and it will be a nice, happy committee and everybody will be represented on it. However, would change happen? Would we really get impact? I do not think we would.

I am not going to compromise on what the independent review group put forward. It was set up before I became Minister. I agreed as Taoiseach that we should set up an independent review body 12 months in advance of a potential tribunal of inquiry, which it recommended we establish and which has been established. I accept the bona fides of what the Deputies are saying but we need to go back to the origins of this, which was the independent review group's report. Who are we trying to help here? We are trying to help the members of the Defence Forces. We are trying to change the culture within the Defence Forces. We are trying to make sure some of the practices that were covered by the independent review group do not happen again. A lot of work is under way within the Defence Forces to make sure that does not happen again. It is taking measures. To be fair, the Chief of Staff is doing that. Equally, however, I uphold the right of the Government of the day to implement recommendations from the independent review body. It is not in any way an attempt to undermine anybody or the Defence Forces itself.

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