Gerard Craughwell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

What we are talking about here is gagging members of the Defence Forces. We do not have any difficulty on the political side but Government policy is the issue, as Senator McDowell has outlined. There has already been a High Court case involving a soldier who wanted to appear in the respect and loyalty parades that took place in 2019, 2020 and 2021. The Minister's Department lost that case on constitutional grounds. This was about the right of a soldier to protest in a public parade.

There are double standards here because during the previous Chief of Staff's term of office, soldiers were encouraged in uniform to take part in a political parade, namely, the Pride parade, every year. Pride is a political movement, whether we like it or not. Soldiers were not just encouraged to parade in uniform, but to wear Pride flags, etc. I have no difficulty with that. It is a perfect role for the Defence Forces to show diversity in our country. However, we cannot have it both ways. There are members of the Defence Forces all over the country hurting over comments made. They know they cannot respond and they will not respond because that is the discipline we are brought into the organisation with. It is understood from the outset when you join as a recruit that you are limited in what you can say.

We have to be careful of the two representatives bodies and the veterans' representative bodies ONE, ARCO and IUNVA. Those bodies need to be free to speak their minds.There is nothing stopping the veterans but RACO and PDFORRA will be limited in what they say. Indeed, it is remarkable at the moment that they are managing to hold their tongues with what is going on in the country.

I do not see the need to bring this in. Can anybody in the Minister's Department point at a time when soldiers, at some stage, started to comment on government policy? Can anybody show me there is evidence of that? I do not believe it has ever happened. I believe this gagging order is completely unnecessary and that the Minister needs to put it away and put an end to it. We do not need it. The Minister can rest assured that both RACO and PDFORRA will always play and work within the rules. My experience of them is that they are decent, honourable people who will always try to do the right thing by the Department and by their own membership. I do not see the need for this and I believe we need to have this taken out.