John McGahon (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Leas-Chathaoirleach for taking the Chair. I was not planning on speaking and I will be brief. A number of months ago I visited Aiken Barracks. I was there for the retirement of a friend of mine from the Reserve Defence Force, where he spent 35 years. I was really amazed at the amount of people there who have so much dedication and commitment to the Reserve. I believe this has been forgotten about over the past number of years or perhaps did not get the required amount of funding and support that it should have. This is why am very pleased to hear today from Senator Lombard and elsewhere, and when one reads the report to see the amount of support that is finally going there. That is a really important aspect. The Reserve should absolutely be treated with the same level of respect and dedication with regard to support and funding from this Government, as are other aspects of the military.

My other point, as referred to by Senator Malcolm Byrne, is the aspect of cybersecurity. That is the new warfare of the modern era. It is something that we as a nation must be very concerned about and on the alert for. It is simply not good enough to have the concept, which we have seen over the last number of months, that because we are Ireland and a nice country on the western edge of the European Continent, nothing bad is ever going to happen to us. That is not a good enough reason. We must be absolutely prepared for as many scenarios as possible. That preparedness must come through Government funding in the long term. This is why I am glad to see in this budget more Government funding than ever before being put towards the Defence Forces. This will go a long way to maintaining and ensuring that we keep our soldiers, our sailors, our aircraft and our pilots in the Defence Forces for as long as possible and that we make it an attractive profession for people to stay there as long as possible.

When I was in Aiken Barracks recently on a tour of Dundalk, there is a guy there who has been there for 30-plus years called Riccardo Lucchesi. Sergeant Lucchesi manages and maintains a museum in the barracks, which is all through his own volition. It is something he does out of enjoyment and he has been keeping it going for ten or 20 years. The danger is that when Sergeant Lucchesi leaves the Defence Forces and when he retires, that will go away. It is something I will discuss with the Department at some stage. I would love to see some small amount of funding dedicated towards Army barracks around the State whereby they can maintain their own museums. There are many times when people find memorabilia or photographs and they will go to an Army barracks to leave it in at the gate. Depending on whether there is someone who is interested in that type of historical context of a barracks, it can go somewhere or it can be lost, unfortunately. One can be surprised and amazed, especially in military towns such as Dundalk, Athlone or Sligo, at the amount of stuff that comes out of homes when people are either moving or clearing attics, and which may have been lost forever. When those items come back into the barracks it would be very good if there was some sort of a system there so the items are catalogued and given to the right people. It would be a really good idea if some sort of funding was available to maintain a small-level type museums in regional barracks.

I again thank the Leas-Chathaoirleach for taking the chair and will switch back with him now.