Tom Clonan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I will speak on an aspect of violence against women in Ireland. We have a profound and persistent problem in Ireland with violence against women and children. The area of sexual violence, the darkest area of violence against women, is one in which I have a special interest. In 2000, 23 years ago, as a serving Army officer, I published a doctoral thesis in which I set out, in very great detail, the shockingly high levels of gender-based discrimination and violence against women in our armed forces. There were shockingly high levels of sexual assault and rape of our female soldiers, sailors and air crew. In that PhD thesis, I set out clearly and explicitly the causes and patterns of this behaviour and the solutions to it. What I received was reprisal. That is how Transparency International Ireland refers to it. My family and I were subjected to a robust and sustained campaign of character assassination, threats, physical assault and threats of physical assault. Other members of my family, my sisters, were also made the targets of explicitly obscene abuse and so on. I called for an independent Government inquiry to investigate that research and a study review group was set up by the then Minister for Defence, Michael Smith, in 2001. It reported in 2003 and fully vindicated my findings.

The reason I raise this matter today is that, 20 years before the #MeToo movement, our armed forces were given explicit and comprehensive notice of a persistent and serious problem with sexual violence against women within the organisation, one of the oldest organisations in the State. The independent review group, the judge-led inquiry into the culture of the Defence Forces, has now furnished its report to Cabinet, a report which is due to be published in the coming weeks. I do not want to pre-empt the findings of that report but, based on my ongoing contact with people in the Defence Forces, it is my belief that not only has the situation in our armed forces not been dealt with, but that it has actually deteriorated and is now worse for young men and women, particularly women. In the words of Karina Molloy, who has just published a book, A Woman in Defence, our Defence Forces are a dangerous place for women. That brings us to a very serious point in the evolution of the State and this Republic. If the Defence Forces are not a safe place for 51% of the population and are a dangerous place for women, it cannot purport to protect or defend the State. It is, by definition, a failed entity and requires very considerable transformation. It is a relic of the British Army of the 1920s, a postcolonial echo of class-ridden hierarchical structures that are not evidence-based. As part of this debate, I would say that we should have zero tolerance for violence against women, including sexual violence against women. We should start with the institutions of the State. I urge both Houses to pay very close attention to the publication of the independent review group report in the coming weeks.