Tom Clonan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

Cuirim fáilte roimh an Tánaiste go dtí an Teach. I, too, am a veteran of the Defence Forces. I served overseas and came under sustained periods of fire when I was overseas but that was nothing compared with the anger, fire and reprisal from people who engaged in that well-known practice of shooting the messenger. Essentially, as has been pointed out in the IRG report, anybody who raises concerns about sexual harassment and sexual assault in the Defence Forces has become the target of reprisal. There is a kind of rhetorical device used to say that if you raise these questions you have failed what the IRG calls the "loyalty test" and you are somehow being disloyal for raising these issues.

The report consists of almost 1,000 pages. It is a thorough vindication of the Women and Honour, and the Men and Women of Honour, and also Katie Hannon, and the national broadcaster, RTÉ, for bringing this out in September 2021. According to the report, "at best, the Defence Forces barely tolerates women and, at its worst, verbally, physically, sexually and psychologically abuses women in its ranks." Crucially, the report states that: "Eighty-eight percent of female respondents [...] reported that they have experienced one or more forms of sexual harassment, compared with 17% of male respondents." This finding shows that gender-based discrimination and violence are endemic within the Defence Forces. The report also made the following observation, on page 42: "To be ‘female’ is to be considered an object rather than a full human being." So this is not a legacy or historical issue but a live and ongoing situation where systematic and systemic violence against women is perpetrated across all three services of the Defence Forces. I am sorry to say that I am still receiving disclosures and representations from young men and women who have been treated in the most appalling ways, including over the Easter weekend when we celebrated the 1916 Rising outside the General Post Office, which is unconscionable.

In terms of the proofs and whether we can place any faith in the findings of the IRG, this research has been ongoing for 23 years. In 1988, which is 25 years ago, I spoke to the then Chief of Staff, Lieutenant General Gerry McMahon, and pointed out the nature and systemic nature of discrimination and violence in the Defence Forces. So, we have known about this matter for quite a considerable amount of time. My findings, in 2000, set out in considerable detail the type of sexual assault and sexual harassment that the IRG's report corroborates and reinforces. It was also reported in 2002, in a report that I called for by the study review group, which investigated my research. The group was led by Dr. Eileen Doyle, and the report was published by the then Minister for Defence, Michael Smith, in 2002. It was also corroborated by Dr. Shirley Graham, who is now with the George Washington University, when she did her doctoral research on women, particularly in peacekeeping and peace enforcement operations. In fact, Dr. Graham was exposed to a serious sexual assault while carrying out her research among Irish troops in Kosovo, and she made that disclosure in Katie Hannon's "Women of Honour" documentary. Nobody can refute the findings of the IRG because they have what one former leader of PDFORRA described to me as "the ring of truth". More recently, the Mohan report into unlawful activities and sexual assaults in McKee Barracks, and the recent Meenan report into the cadet school, corroborate and reinforce these findings.

To be clear, like the "not all men" narrative, the "bad apple" narrative is an invalidating, rhetorical device that derails the lived experience of survivors, and elides and distracts from the culture of inaction and reprisal that has dominated the Defence Forces' culture.If even a fraction of the energy invested in reprisal had been invested in dealing with the perpetrators, we would have saved hundreds of young women and men from life-altering and life-limiting experiences of sexual violence within Óglaigh na hÉireann. It is this wilful inaction and persistent recidivist reprisal against those of us who have called out the toxic culture, perpetrated by the so-called good apples, that has led to a situation where matters of sexual violence have deteriorated over the past 25 years, despite the clear warnings that were given. There is no excuse. The rotten apples narrative is an excuse and a pathetic one at that.