Fiona O'Loughlin (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

On the Commission on the Defence Forces, I wish to thank the 15-member commission and the chair, Aidan O'Driscoll, for their work. It is noteworthy that there were 500 submissions. About 1,000 military personnel were interviewed. The report is going to foster real debate about the Defence Forces that Ireland needs as a modern European country. There are 69 recommendations in the report, many of them very significant changes. The Minister is seeking the views of other stakeholders and will return with an action plan, which absolutely needs to be time bound. However, he should not wait for that to start discussions and engagement with the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform. Without a shadow of a doubt, it is essential that a permanent pay review body for the military is put in place. That must begin here and now, along with the recommendation that those within the Army can affiliate to ICTU and that there is a progression towards proper pay and resources for the Army.I will mention one other matter. Councillor Michael Sheehan from Gorey contacted me yesterday evening to tell me an horrific story about a young woman from New Ross who put her phone for sale on the donedeal.iewebsite and invited to meet a buyer in Castledermot in County Kildare. She was to meet an individual at 7.30 p.m. on a dark evening in a relatively lonely place. Luckily, she brought her boyfriend with her. When she got out of the car, a man jumped out with a hammer and tried to pull her into another vehicle.

There are a number of lessons to be learned from this. The operators of the donedeal.iewebsite were contacted, along with the Garda, but there was no legitimate phone number for the individual in question. Any community-based organisation such as the donedeal.iewebsite must do due diligence in this respect. It must ensure it can work on behalf of people. If somebody is selling or exchanging something, they should not do it late at night and in darkness in a place they do not know. There is a lesson for all of us here.