Gerard Craughwell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

Today, the new Chief of Staff of the Defence Forces, Major-General Seán Clancy, takes over an organisation that is in very poor shape. I wish him the very best. There is a new Secretary General in the Department and I know that she will work with him to try to rebuild the force.

My colleague spoke about front-line workers and of how those who worked in the medical sector should be treated differently when it comes to recognition for their work. We have to be honest about this. What about truck and bus drivers? Truck drivers delivered food to our grocery stores. They did not know when they were going in to collect food who they were meeting and what condition they might be in. At least nurses and doctors had protective equipment. Bus and tram drivers and all of the people worked on the front line - I do not care whether they were medical or non-medical - and the soldiers who were out on swabbing duty at test centres, everybody who went to work had an equal part. This is regardless of whether they were treating medical conditions or just delivering something; they all had an equal part and we must treat them all equally.

We all received a letter from my colleague, Councillor Deirdre Donnelly, from Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council, over the summer about sexual abuse and sexual harassment and attack etc. Deirdre has gone out of her way to explain to all of us the process she went through in reporting a crime and she went public on this. I call on the Leader to have a debate in this House because these are serious issues, particularly for a woman who goes to Garda station to report that she has been raped or assaulted. We need to kick this debate out into the open to discuss specifically how they were dealt with. We have the evidence from one person and I am sure there are others who would come in. Perhaps it is one of those things on which we might have a public debate on where we might bring in Ms Blackwell or some such person in order that we can talk about the things that need to change because they do need to change.

We see what is going on in the Defence Forces and it has horrified most my former colleagues because sex abuse and bullying takes place in silence behind closed doors. I ask that the Leader might arrange a debate on this issue and let us see if we can kick it out into the open to see what needs to change.