Defence (Amendment) Bill 2024: Committee Stage
Seanad Éireann — 2024-07-03
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Joe O'Reilly (FG), Labour Panel

I will be very brief. I am slightly different from colleagues in that I am a bit agnostic on the question of the Secretary General. However, I do believe in the proposition that if we put the Secretary General in there, the Tánaiste should look seriously at putting representatives of PDFORRA and RACO in on the basis that they have skin in the game. They have a commitment to the betterment of the forces. They are not just representative bodies and they are capable of going on the body with a level of objectivity, and they want the culture change too. If the Secretary General is there, then they should be there also. I appeal to the Tánaiste to look at that option on the premise that it will lead buy-in in respect of the body and acceptance of and confidence in the body across the board. If the Secretary General goes in alone and we leave out the representative organisations, there will be an issue from those organisations' perspective.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2024-07-03/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:53:09+00:00
Sitting date: 2024-07-03