Don Lydon (Fianna Fail)

I welcome the Minister and congratulate him on his well-deserved appointment. I also welcome the Bill. The existing system of invoking redress for wrongs was rightly discredited and the Bill admirably gives effect to principles of fairness and transparency. It is important that the independence of the new office is clear and I look forward to its promulgation within the Permanent and Reserve Defence Forces.

In principle, this legislation is long overdue. I am glad to see it covers the Reserve Defence Force, An Fórsa Cosanta Áitiúil and An Slua Muirí. They are going through a worrisome period during their reorganisation, especially in the context of the decision to reassign officers and senior non-commissioned officers to different jobs within the next few months. No doubt the Minister will be with us again in the House on future occasions to debate issues, including the new reserve, name changes, employment protection and overseas service.

I am delighted to see that the appointee as military ombudsman cannot be a serving member of the Defence Forces, as this will underpin the perception of independence. I hope that the first appointee, irrespective of whether a man or woman performs the task, is only appointed for one term of seven years. This raises the issue of what the Minister will set as the prescribed age and I look forward to hearing his views on that subject. A person of mature years is needed as the new ombudsman for the Defence Forces and that person must have a track record in human relations. My reason for proposing an initial single term is that the reports made to the Minister and his successor will more precisely define what attributes are needed in a military ombudsman.

I am pleased an annual report by the ombudsman is provided for and I hope the Minister will share with the House his thoughts on what issues he will prescribe the report should include. I respectfully suggest that when the Minister brings the office of ombudsman into operation, a briefing document should be sent to the home of each serving member of the Permanent and Reserve Defence Forces.

In these days of decentralisation I hope the office of the ombudsman will not be located in Dublin. If it is not going to be in Limerick, I suggest it should go to Killybegs where at least the navy will always have a warm berth.

Turning to nitty-gritty issues, will the appointee be full time? I wonder if there is a necessity to have such an independent, standalone ombudsman. I suspect that, after the initial flurry of pent-up demand has been satisfied, a defence force of 11,000 personnel and a similar number in the reserve, should not attract too heavy a workload. Thus, I wonder whether the existing Ombudsman will be appointed to fill that role. If it is a distinctive, separate appointee, how many staff will he or she employ to undertake the initial work? No doubt consideration has been given to that issue by the Minister's Department.

Though I understand why, I am nonetheless disappointed that the ombudsman will not have the power to investigate complaints retrospectively. I hope that once it is signed into law, the Minister will bring the Bill into operation at the earliest moment. There is a pent-up demand for this appointment, so the earlier it is signed the better.

I note that section 4(2)(c) indicates exclusions for military operations. Will the Minister spell out what is meant by a "military operation", as I am at a loss to identify, other than purely routine barracks tasks, what will be encompassed by such operations? I feel that guard duties, honour guards, cash escorts, range practices, tactical exercises and overseas operations fall into that exclusion. I wonder what in practice this exclusion will permit the ombudsman to investigate. Will it be the duties an individual undertakes or whether a person is rotated inequitably over weekends? I ask the Minister to clarify in section 5(1) what section 179 of the 1954 Act excludes.

In summary, I believe the Bill is overdue. I hope it will be brought into force as soon as possible. I welcome the Minister bringing the Bill to the House so quickly after his appointment.