Gerard Craughwell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I join with Senator Boylan on the issue of animals. My dog of 11 years died recently and I wanted to replace him. As one cannot find pups in the various rescue centres at the moment, I decided to search online and discovered that puppies are being sold for up to €3,000 each. Let us think about the outrageous amount of money that can be earned from one litter of pups. There also are puppy farms where female dogs are forced to quickly produce litter after litter of pups. As the money that is involved in this game is astronomical, I fully what Senator Boylan is trying to do.

Last night, the Minister for Defence came in here and I am delighted that he has accepted the word of the women in the Women of Honour group. I am delighted to see that Major General Seán Clancy, the new Chief of Staff, is taking a very robust line with respect to the discipline that is required of soldiers serving in the Defence Forces.

There is an issue of corporate governance within the Defence Forces that must be addressed immediately. There are as many as 600 vacant junior managerial posts, that is, corporals, sergeants and company sergeants, within the enlisted ranks. We have had a dearth of commissioned officers run through the Curragh over the last number of years to try to build up the commissioned officers. However, we still have situations where young commissioned officers are going into units and taking over platoons of up to 30 men in their first commission without any serious mentoring taking place. When I served in the 1st Infantry Battalion in Galway, we had a parade every morning at 9 a.m. That parade was taken by the colonel in charge of the battalion. One had the adjutant and every company commander on parade. One had every lieutenant on parade with their platoons. One had every platoon sergeant and company sergeant. We were all there and everybody knew where everybody stood. The chain of command was perfectly clear with everybody. If there was indiscipline, it was witnessed by the most junior ranks and dealt with immediately. I do not suggest that not having these people in place is an excuse for what has happened. What I am saying is that one minimises the opportunities if one has the people in place with responsibility to take over. So I really think that we must deal with the unfilled vacancies for promotional posts in the Defence Forces as a matter of urgency.