Tom Clonan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I apologise but I was just dealing with an urgent message. I wish to raise the case of Captain Dr. Lisa McNamee. She is a young female medic in the Defence Forces. She was commissioned in good faith in 2017 to complete a special military medicine training scheme. It is part of the overall GP training scheme. She entered that scheme, as did other doctors, in good faith. The training promised by the Defence Forces has not taken place. She is being told that if she wishes to leave the Defence Forces she must pay €90,000.

I am concerned about this situation. Captain Dr. McNamee is a young woman and has a small child, a little girl. She wishes to get on with her life. She has served in the Defence Forces with distinction but she is not being allowed to leave and is not being given the qualifications and training promised to her at the beginning of her service. The Defence Forces suddenly announced that there will be examinations at the end of July, but she never got the placements that would support the examination criteria. She has only been given something like four to six weeks to prepare for these examinations.

My main concern here is that another doctor, who was commissioned with her, a male doctor, was allowed to leave without any obstacle or penalty. When Captain Dr. McNamee, however, as a young woman, filled in her form 608 application to apply to retire, she set out her concerns about the maladministration of the scheme. There are other matters in this regard. I refer to doctors and complaints to the Medical Council arising from the administration of the Army Medical Service. She has deep-seated concerns and I believe she is being targeted by the Department of Defence and the Defence Forces in the way that was set out in the judge-led inquiry. I refer to this pattern of reprisal. When people in our Defence Forces raise a concern, they immediately become the target of reprisal. Captain Dr. McNamee is being forced into compulsory military service.