A significant number of the recommendations have been followed through on and have been worked on. I did not list them all there. The whole consultation around the establishment of a tribunal has taken an especially long time, and rightly so, because people wanted to consult and get it right and have suggestions made that we have taken on board. We moved very quickly on identifying that justice Bill for ensuring all sexual assault is investigated by An Garda Síochána. We have also taken steps in respect of the trea…

The Deputy summed it up when he said that cultural change takes time.

I am not satisfied yet. I think we still have some distance to go but we are making progress on a whole range of fronts. On the pay front, the Government has made significant progress with things like the patrol duty allowance and medical care. While they are not specific to the independent review group, they are important in terms of the overall quality of the work environment within the Defence Forces. We have made a lot of progress on the working time directive, which is equally important in respect of quality o…

I propose to take Questions Nos. 54, 56 and 84 together. I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. As Minister, I am deeply committed to the transformation of the Defence Forces into a modern, fit-for-purpose organisation to defend the State and meet the challenges of today and the future. Following the publication of the report of the independent review group on dignity and equality issues in the Defence Forces in March 2023, I set out my priority to develop one strategic framework for the transformation of the D…

Do I not have more time because there is a number of questions?

Okay, I have to do what I am told.

To conclude my initial response, much progress has been achieved since the commission’s report was published. The high level action plan identified the recruitment, through an open process, for the new senior-level civilian positions of head of transformation and head of strategic human resources for the Defence Forces as necessary early actions. Appointments have now been made to these positions. A number of the recommendations that have been implemented to date have had a significant impact. We recently announced…

We have to beef up the capacity of the Defence Forces to develop a comprehensive radar system, to assess the requirements for Ireland in that respect and to procure one. On subsea cables, obviously aerial support is important. There are a number of dimensions to protecting subsea cables, the most critical one being collaboration with other EU member states, the US and other countries. The monitoring is done globally and different countries alert each other when they spot potential third-party actors who may be eith…

No, there will not be. As of 11 January 2024, there are 134 Defence Forces personnel serving with the UNDOF. I got advice at the time I came into office to pull back and consolidate. We may consider additionality in UNIFIL or elsewhere but that depends on current events. We have a commitment to the EU battle group 2024-25. We have been part of the battle groups since 1999-2000. That is something we have committed to under the Common Security and Defence Policy, CSDP. It is important for interoperability. We are in …

I am talking about Gaza. The Deputy knows that.

The Deputy is a great man for distorting what gets said. He knew damn well I was talking about Gaza, yet he just switched it. What I mentioned earlier is there may be a call for an international security force. There may not be but there may be. In all the talks about bringing peace to Gaza and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict it has been actively considered that an international security force would be better in Gaza than an Israeli security presence. I am sure the Deputy agrees with that. He asked the question in…

No, I gave you four cases-----

Again, I gave the Deputy four examples in a recent question. I spoke about the ship and Operation Sophia and so on-----

No, it was 2015. I gave the Deputy examples in respect of that. He made a comment that was unacceptable when he said that these lads could not be trusted as they will pull out.

The United Nations trusts Ireland. As a country, we are one of the most consistent, respected peacekeepers in the world.

Cheap comments of that kind should not be made by the Deputy. He is just in the job, but he should at least have some respect for the country and how we are perceived internationally.

All peacekeeping participation is subject to review. We pulled out of MINUSMA, which concluded in September 2022. We withdrew three Defence Forces personnel from the MONUSCO stabilisation mission in the Congo. The original two-year commitment to that had ended. We withdrew from the UN training mission in Mali. We take decisions on an ongoing basis. We then decide to enter into other missions if we can, some of which were, in the past, EU led or otherwise led. I will not mix up the two jerseys of the triple lock que…

I thank the Deputy for raising the issue. The EDA was established by a joint action of the Council of the European Union in 2004 "to support the Member States and the Council in their effort to improve ... [the Union’s] defence capabilities in the field of crisis management and to sustain the European Security and Defence Policy as it stands now and develops in the future”. On 6 July 2004, Government approved Ireland’s participation in the framework of the EDA. The primary reason for Ireland's participation in this…

I have outlined the eight projects that we are currently involved in, and I outlined that we joined four more. I met with the chief executive officer last year when he came to Dublin. We have established a capability development unit, which goes back to Deputy O'Sullivan's question, to deal with the expanded capability of the Defence Forces as per the Commission on Defence Forces. This unit gives us the capacity of structures to develop and expand within our Department. We can focus on what the EDA and other intern…

The EDA is more a procurement agency to assist us in procuring equipment, weaponry and so forth. Perhaps the Deputy is referring to the PESCO projects, which is a separate initiative. We are currently participating in four PESCO projects: upgraded maritime surveillance; deployable military disaster relief capability packages; maritime autonomous systems for mine countermeasures; and a cyber threats and incident response information-sharing platform. We are observer status on a further 20 projects. I can supply the …