Fiona O'Loughlin (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for his response on behalf of the Minister for Defence. While I note the points that he made, to be perfectly honest, I cannot understand how the Minister needs five months to prepare his response. Nothing in the commission's report can be a surprise to him or, indeed, to his officials because for the past ten years we have been listening to the issues, challenges and problems, particularly around recruitment and retention.

While much of the public commentary has unsurprisingly been focused on the big ticket items, the real meat of the commission's recommendations relate to structural and system reforms that will go a long way to tackle the twin problems of poor morale and personnel retention. These are the two biggest issues that we have.

I participated in a meeting of the Joint Committee on Foreign Affairs and Defence along with the Leas-Cathaoirleach two weeks ago in the Curragh where we heard all of this first-hand. It used be a situation where those who went into the Army certainly took great pride in their role and in their position. While they still take great pride, there is certainly a huge lack of morale and that needs to be addressed.