Gerard Craughwell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

The Commission on the Future of the Defence Forces has reported. I know the Acting Leader, Senator O'Loughlin, will have an interest in that today. One of the things that can happen straight away is that they can follow through on the recommendation that the Permanent Defence Forces Representative Association, PDFORRA, and the Representative Association of Commissioned Officers, RACO, if it wishes, can now affiliate to the Irish Congress of Trade Unions. The quicker that happens the better. I have held my counsel on it for the past six years because it was important that it came from the official side. That has happened now, and both of those organisations should be allowed to affiliate should they wish to do so. It is vitally important for the negotiations and pay rounds that will start in the coming months.

This week, the Minister announced an independent investigation into an event that took place at McKee Barracks. It is in the public media, and I will not get into the ins and outs of it, but what it has done is undermined the Chief of Staff of the Defence Forces. He had initiated an investigation and officers were charged and admonished. There is a potential for a court martial coming forward. By bringing in a third party to carry out an investigation now we have a serious problem of double jeopardy. This could finish up in the courts. I have no idea what the Minister was thinking or who advised him at the time to initiate a separate investigation. The Military Police are statutorily in place to carry out investigations and there is a military judge and a military courts system. There are penalties that can be awarded by the military. There is an appeals mechanism. There is no place for somebody coming in from the outside. Should it be an issue for the Garda to be involved in, it falls to the Chief of Staff to decide that, not a Minister. We need to have a discussion on that at some stage in the near future.