Michael McDowell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

Looking at the Bill, this is not a temporary institution.It is a body corporate intended to be a permanent part of the Defence Forces. It is not there to just deal with the urgent requirement - and I totally agree with the Tánaiste - for a change of culture, particularly in relation to certain aspects of the Defence Forces, including the treatment of women and how dissent is handled. This is to be a permanent part of the Defence Forces and a body corporate with its own seal. It is to be there in ten or 15 years' time, monitoring all of the issues relating to promotions, recruitment and so on. If it really is to be independent, we do not need the Secretary General there to correct the culture difficulties that the has correctly identified as existing. This is not a temporary sticking plaster, this is the future of the Defence Forces over the next quarter of a century. In those circumstances, I believe that what I said earlier about the Secretary General and their duty to a Minister to advise the Minister privately on matters, being utterly conflicted with sitting on a body which is making other recommendations to the Minister, while it is supposed to be independent of the Minister. There is a fundamental disconnect here. This has never been attempted before.

The fact that the independent review group suggested it does not mean that the Members of these Houses are wrong or stupid in querying it and objecting to it. If people in the Dáil did say enthusiastically "Commit yourself to everything", we do not sign blank cheques to outsiders to tell us what should or should not be the law.