Defence (Amendment) Bill 2024: Report and Final Stages Dail Éireann — 2024-06-12 ============================================================ Brendan Howlin (LAB), Wexford I thank the Tánaiste for that. I am no wiser on his intentions in relation to that. It will be a debate on a paper that is being produced but I would like the Oireachtas to be part of that debate, not after the decisions are made by way of being presented with heads of a Bill but in the sort of complication of debate the Tánaiste has just outlined. I fully accept the amendment I have proposed is far from the finished article in the context of the reforms that are necessary, but the notion that the Chief of Staff of the Defence Forces - the chief of the Defence Forces - is an adviser to the Minister and that a senior civil servant in the Department actually can direct him in the administration of the Defence Forces, there needs to be----- --- Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted. Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2024-06-12/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:53:03+00:00 Sitting date: 2024-06-12