Gerard Craughwell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I accept what the Tánaiste is saying, but this is the point I am making about the overreaching arch of the Department. In Defence Forces communities in Athlone, Galway, Cork, etc., generally speaking, it fell to the officer commanding the unit. This is what happened back in the day when I was there when the local community wanted assistance. We used to have firing parties, for example, for old IRA people. The request went into the commanding officer. It was sanctioned locally and dealt with locally. Now, everything has to go back to the Department. I have had situations, for example, the commemoration of the fallen of the First World War in Galway, when thanks to the Secretary General of the Department, at the twelfth hour, a couple of hours before it was due to take place a few years ago, we got sanctioned to run it. When I talk about autonomy, I am talking about autonomy within the Defence Forces themselves. Of course, I accept that the Chief of Staff and all the members of the Defence Forces are answerable to the Minister and that will and should always be the way. However, there has to be local control. We cannot have a situation where in some cases, junior officials in the Department have the right of sanction on a particular request whereas a lieutenant colonel in charge of 500 or 600 men and women cannot make that decision. That is fundamentally wrong, and I think the Tánaiste will agree with that. We have always been embedded in the communities we serve. I would hate to see that being eroded further.

I know what the commission recommended regarding the breakdown of the structures. I agree with my colleague, Senator McDowell. I would like to see the writing on the wall on that one before we start to give it sanction. However, it is a good idea that the Army, the Air Corps or air force, as it will become, and the navy will have their own structures. That is important. However, in terms of lending out a tent for a weekend fair in the local community, surely to God local colonels should do that.