I thank the Cathaoirleach and Seanad colleagues for this opportunity to update them on my priorities as Minister for Defence and to listen to their views. This builds on the discussion we had only in the past two weeks. We need to have an honest debate in this country about defence and security and particularly about the role that Óglaigh na hÉireann will play in that regard. That debate can, and indeed should, take place in various forums, but it is essential the Houses of the Oireachtas debates issues around the …

It is not inaccurate.

It is not.

It is not.

I am not suggesting that.

Like my colleagues, I am pleased to have the time to contribute to this State apology. I acknowledge the words of the Taoiseach, the Tánaiste and many of my colleagues in apologising for the great harm that was done to so many young people and families over a prolonged period of time at the hands of the State. The Taoiseach's apology today rightly built on the 1999 apology on behalf of the State and its citizens to all survivors of childhood abuse, taking into consideration the 2021 apology to survivors and former …

I thank Senator Craughwell for raising this topic. I also acknowledge Professor Fitzpatrick and Professor Bury in the Gallery As the Senator said, he is raising this topic on a particularly sombre day. I think we are all finding it hard to imagine it is four years since the first day of Russia's brutal, illegal and barbaric war, one it has been waging and is increasing in scale and volume. Since February 2022, in addition to military attacks, Russia has targeted Ukrainian energy, transport facilities, hospitals and…

I acknowledge the excellent work being done through the project. It is a perfect example of how quite literally civilians and citizens in Ireland have come together to provide support. We know there is a huge amount happening beyond this as well. There are over 100,000 Ukrainian citizens living in Ireland. They are in our communities, towns and villages. While we might be geographically the furthest from Ukraine and from where the war is happening, for all of us our hearts are very much connected to what is happeni…

I welcome the opportunity to outline and discuss the recently published detailed implementation plan of the report of the Commission on the Defence Forces and the new strategic framework I launched and brought to Cabinet last week. The plans set out the ambitious timelines I intend to set over the next year to make sure we can expand, enhance and grow our overall Defence Forces capabilities. Of course, as is the case with any plan, it has to be matched by a capital budget. Deputies will be aware that just before Ch…

The new strategic infrastructure plan and the new strategic framework clearly set out how we can be more ambitious when it comes to increasing our overall Defence Forces numbers. Our numbers increased by 200 last year. I appreciate that this is a smaller number than we would like, but I am determined that we will continue on that trajectory right across our Defence Forces. To that effect, I am working closely with the Defence Forces to make sure we have a new workforce plan in place, but also that we have a new civ…

I am the first to say that we need to be more ambitious, but that is not to suggest that nothing has been done. In terms of human resources, recruitment and retention, we have increased the maximum ages for recruitment and retirement. We have extended the private secondary healthcare to all personnel. We have applied the working time directive across the Defence Forces, subject to certain exemptions. We have increases in the patrol duty allowances that are payable to Naval Service personnel at sea. We have extended…

I want to take this opportunity to thank the men and women of Óglaigh na hÉireann for their commitment and professionalism in carrying out their essential duties in defending our State, serving in vital peacekeeping missions abroad and assisting our civil bodies. I had the opportunity to have my first meeting with the representative organisations, RACO and PDFORRA, in January where this issue was discussed, and I hope to have a constructive relationship with both organisations and many others during my term as Mini…

That statement was merely stating the fact that the reports were not legally binding, but it is essential that we respond to the findings and work in accordance with the ECSR. That is something we are committed to. We have responded to many of the issues raised since that complaint was made. Members of the Defence Forces are compensated for additional or irregular hours through allowances and structured systems of compensatory rest. In addition, a pensionable military service allowance, which is designed to compens…

We both fully agree that we can talk about expansion, growth and enhancing our capabilities. If we do not invest in the men and women of Óglaigh na hÉireann in the context of supporting and retaining them and recruiting further members, however, we are not going to be able to deliver on the ambitious programme that we have and that we all want to work towards. It is extremely important to understand what the issues are. As I said, I had really good engagement with RACO and PDFORRA in the past two weeks. My ambition…

On timelines, the defence (amendment) Bill 2025, which relates to how deploy our Defence Forces overseas, is included in the Government's legislative programme for priority publication during the current parliamentary session. The drafting of the Bill is continuing in conjunction with the Office of Parliamentary Counsel, and publication of the Bill is a key priority for me and for the Government in this term. Only in the last few weeks, I brought to Government amendments that had been proposed by the committee and …

I respectfully say that we are not moving away from anything. In fact, if the Deputy talks to anybody in the UN, they will tell her that Ireland is one of the staunchest defenders of multilateralism and of the UN, whether it is peacekeeping or humanitarian work and support. We will continue to defend that but at the moment, the structure that we subscribed to is not working. At the moment, we cannot send our troops to missions because there have been no new mandated missions since 2014. In fact, there is not even a…

I ask the Deputy to tell me how this is actually going to impact on our neutrality because I have yet to have someone explain to me how sending peacekeeping troops is going to impact on our neutrality. We already partake in missions. We already partake in cybersecurity. We already partake in training missions. We already partake in other missions. We are not talking about an EU army. We are not talking about joining forces. We are talking about sending our peacekeeping troops. The General Assembly is not binding, s…

As I referred to this evening, and Deputy Timmins has very clearly referred to it, the world we are living in is changing. The types of threats are changing and the intensity of the threats are changing. Even the relationships we have relied on to date are also changing. It is really important that we as a country respond, that we do so in a number of different ways, and that we are ambitious in our overall desire to defend ourselves and to work more closely with other European and international partners. What I ha…

I fully agree. When we talk about threats, we talk about them perhaps in a way as though they are in the future. We have already been subject to these types of changing hybrid threats. It was just five years ago when the HSE had a cyber-attack that impacted access to significant amounts of information and the functioning of the HSE and our social protection system. We have seen it already and we know it is there. This is why it is really important, whether in our Defence Forces or An Garda Síochána, that we have th…

The maritime security strategy will ensure that we are taking ownership of what we need to do, but given the vast, expansive maritime domain we are looking at, it is important that we work closely with other colleagues and friends. It is important that we have a more permanent structure in place to be able to co-operate in that way. We are not immune to Russian threats, in the same way no other country is. We have already seen our friends, whether it is Lithuania, Denmark or Poland, have already been victims to Rus…