Thomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I again thank my colleagues for their sentiments, which I take very seriously indeed and which I will certainly relay to the Minister and to the Taoiseach. I will, however, take the opportunity to remind the House that the establishment of an independent commission on the Defence Forces follows a very specific commitment made in the programme for Government, as agreed by Government parties, to establish such a commission before the end of the year. The continuous review programme of the Department of Defence will continue in 2021, when the Department itself will be subject to an organisational capability review, which I hope might address some of the issues Senator Chambers raised in her latter contribution. The commission has been given wide-ranging and challenging terms of reference, which focus on ensuring that our Defence Forces are agile, flexible and adaptable in responding to dynamic changes in the security environment including new emerging threats from technology. The Minister has stated that the commission is going to proceed with its important task and we look forward to the completion of this work.