Tom Clonan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for attending. I will make a few comments and will echo many of the points of view articulated by my colleagues on both sides of the House. I hope that when we consider amendments on Committee Stage, given that there is cross-party consensus, the Minister of State might take on board some of our concerns.

I began a personal journey as a young officer in 1996 when I came back from overseas. That journey began with PhD research, asking my female colleagues about their experience of service in Óglaigh na hÉireann. Unfortunately, one of the unanticipated outcomes of the research was to reveal the shockingly high levels of harassment, bullying, sexual harassment, sexual assault and rape of my female colleagues. That was followed by an independent Government inquiry and the study review group of 2001 which investigated my research and furnished its interim report in 2002. The review fully vindicated my findings. It found that not only young women but also young male soldiers were targeted in this way for sexual assault and rape. This led to the independent monitoring groups, which continued until approximately 2014. Unfortunately, on 11 September 2021, the Women of Honour came forward to restate and reiterate their experiences of sexual assault, sexual harassment and rape within the Defence Forces.

The logical trajectory of this has been the formulation of the judge-led inquiry, which furnished its report last March or April. One of its recommendations was the establishment of the external oversight body. I welcome that development. I have concerns about some of the assertions made by other Members of this House that the decades of research and the investigations by independent bodies do not reflect the reality of military service in our Defence Forces. That is to denigrate the experiences of the vast majority of Defence Forces personnel who know well about the toxic culture that heretofore has existed within the organisation and which has been borne out time and again by research.

In the context of the external oversight body, I note it is often said that perfection is the enemy of the good. The Bill provides for the appointment to the oversight body of the Secretary General of the Department of Defence. She is a person of great integrity who has come in from the private banking sector. I do not know her very well but what I know of her is that she is an extremely capable and professional person. However, having her on the external oversight body compromises to an extent its-----