Camillus Glynn (Fianna Fail)

The appointment of Deputy O'Dea to the defence portfolio is a timely recognition of his Trojan service to the people of his constituency as a Deputy and as a Minister of State. On many occasions they have given him a resounding mandate to represent them and I have no doubt he will reflect the success he has achieved to date in representing them in the new portfolio he has been given.

It would be remiss of me not to say that I was sad to see the previous Minister, Deputy Michael Smith, leaving because in the last Seanad I was the Government spokesman on defence. When the Army deafness legislation was being debated, it was a trying time for the Department of Defence and the Minister but he handled it very well.

I welcome this legislation which is a milestone. In my capacity as spokesperson on defence in the last Seanad, I met PDFORRA and RACO on a number of occasions. In addition, I am from Mullingar which is a military town. We are proud of our barracks and the personnel who serve in it. Mullingar has been well served, not alone in the security that Columb Barracks gives the town, but the community as a whole benefits from the great service the Defence Forces personnel give across the board. They are involved in every organisation and always leave their mark.

I commend the Minister and the Government for introducing this Bill. The previous Minister introduced it in the Dáil last year and this is a fitting tribute to Deputy Michael Smith and his remarkable tenure and achievements in the Department. The late Frank Aiken may have served longer than Deputy Smith in the portfolio and I am sure the new Minister, Deputy O'Dea, will be nipping at their heels.

Since 1997, the former Minister successfully revitalised our Defence Forces and maintained the policy of continuous recruitment that he introduced in 1998.

As a long-standing member of Westmeath County Council, I spoke many times on motions about recruitment. The age profile of the Defence Forces was totally unacceptable. Many people, including former Ministers, said that action should be taken but it was Deputy Michael Smith as Minister who actually did something about it.

Deputy Smith also delivered a significant programme of investment in new equipment and infrastructure in the Defence Forces. He left his mark in the Department of Defence. His most enduring achievement was the first ever White Paper on Defence which sets out the blueprint for the future development of the Defence Forces to the year 2010. It lays out an investment programme that gives members of the Defence Forces the modern equipment required and a military organisation that is second to none. He also brought about a number of significant changes in reducing the overall level of cost to the State on the issue of Army deafness which have received widespread publicity. I am confident the taxpayer will be very grateful to him. As the Minister admitted in this Chamber, there was a need to have this matter addressed but it had to be addressed in a balanced and cohesive manner and he found the right balance and formula.

In congratulating the new Minister, Deputy O'Dea, I remind him that Deputy Michael Smith is a tough act to follow, but then Deputy O'Dea is a tough act himself. I am glad of the opportunity to speak in the debate on the Bill. Although the legislation has been in development for a long time, as other speakers have pointed out, it received a welcome from all interested parties. It is never too late to do the right thing.

Many Members referred in their contributions to the late John Lucey. I met him a number of times and there is no doubt that he was a king among men in his work on behalf of the Defence Forces and especially the representative body, PDFORRA. May he rest in peace. He campaigned tirelessly for the appointment of an ombudsman.

The purpose of the Bill is to create an office of the ombudsman for the Defence Forces, to provide for the appointment, functions and staff of the ombudsman and to amend the Defence Act 1954. When this legislation has been enacted, it will have the potential to give members of the Defence Forces a genuinely independent forum for dealing with complaints and any injustices that may emerge. No organisation has the capacity to deal efficiently with all types of complaints involving people at different levels and this should also apply in the case of the Defence Forces.

In my capacity as spokesman on defence, I received a number of complaints. I freely admit that I had no basis on which to act on those complaints because there was no formula in place to deal with them. This Bill is a step in the right direction. It is taking the proverbial bull by the horns and bringing to task those in positions of responsibility and command. It is always preferable to command respect rather than demand it. In the management of human resources, whether in terms of factory employees, members of the Defence Forces or whatever, it is important that the people in charge administer their responsibilities in a fair and even-handed manner but, unfortunately, that has not always been the case.

The present arrangements provide for remedies in the informal mechanism of an external civilian complaints inquiry officer who can investigate, examine and make recommendations on individual grievances which are submitted to the Minister by members of the Defence Forces. Under the arrangements, the Minister has the power of discretionary reference of a complaint to the complaints inquiry officer. A revaluation of this process carried out towards the end of 1999 indicated that the officer was dealing with between 20 and 25 cases per annum. It was found that a specific demand existed at private and non-commissioned officer level.

The process used was autonomous of the Defence Forces, the Department of Defence and the then Minister. The new office of the ombudsman will be a fully autonomous statutory entity to which complaints can be forwarded in cases where complainants are not content with the responses obtained from the military authorities, to former complaints under the Defence Act provisions for the redress of wrongs.

The new office of the ombudsman will function as an entirely independent entity, which is to be welcomed. It will have clear statutory powers of independent inquiry and investigation, closely modelled on those in the Ombudsman Act 1980. The powers of the new office will, however, take account of the singular circumstances and the demands of the military environment. Other speakers have referred to the fact that the military environment is different from any other working environment. The concept of military activities is based on a person being in charge and the men and women under his or her direction obeying reasonable orders. We expect the highest standards from the Defence Forces.

The Defence Forces have proven to be outstanding models in the community, whether in Mullingar, Athlone or further afield. In the context of overseas service, there have been no better flag bearers than the members of the Defence Forces. They have shown that Ireland, even as a minuscule nation on the periphery of the EU and the Atlantic Ocean, can produce men and women who have excelled in the even-handed manner in which they deal with difficult situations.

I wish the Minister well in his new position and wish this legislation well as it is much needed. The issue of female membership of the Defence Forces needs to be addressed. I would like to see more women serving in the Defence Forces. I ask the Minister to ensure the continuation of the recruitment campaign initiated in 1998 by the then Minister, Deputy Michael Smith. There was a haemorrhage of good people from the Defence Forces in the late 1980s and early 1990s. The age profile of the Defence Forces was undesirable and unacceptable. I ask the Minister not to allow that situation occur again but I am confident it will not happen under his stewardship.