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

It is all about equivalence between the military and the Department of Defence, but the origins of this is the independent review group. It called it. It produced its report. It was terrible reading for all of us. It made recommendations of the most fundamental kind and, above all, that the external oversight body would be independent of the Defence Forces for the very reasons Deputy Boyd Barrett outlined. Whether that be fair or not, that is what the independent review body said.

I met the independent review body. I met the chair. They were very clear to me that they did not want a repeat of previous iterations of groups that would monitor this and monitor change. They said that would not cut it. They were saying, basically, if you want to effect radical change and transformation of culture within the Defence Forces, we need an external oversight body that is independent of the Defence Forces. The Department's officials were not under scrutiny by the IRG at all. That has to be said. That is the context for all of this.

Basically, there is an agenda now to try to bring about reform and change for the better. We do not want situations where people feel that they cannot bring a complaint. We want to create a grievance process that gives confidence to members. By the way, that is beginning to work. We are getting more complaints in some respects, which is a sign that people are feeling more confident to bring forward complaints.

We have made changes whereby any violation or sexual assault is now immediately referred to the Garda. A lot of change is occurring. I pay tribute to the Chief of Staff and the team on the reforms that are happening already. To Deputy Cronin's point, I mentioned the other House in the context of the debate on the independent review group there. It was nothing to do with the external oversight body.

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