It is fair to say that we have a unique command of our Defence Forces when compared to other defence forces around the world. The Commission on the Defence Forces recommended a chief of the Defence Forces, a joint services approach, upgrading the chief of the Air Corps, Naval Service and Army and having all at a similar level and then having a vice chief of defence, CHOD, also.
However, I cannot see any reason if decisions in principle have been made by the Cabinet they should not all be put out there for the public to consider, especially when the Defence Forces are coming under such scrutiny at the moment and are in a crisis as regards the falling numbers in the Defence Forces and the undermanning of the structure of the Defence Forces due to the shortage of personnel. The Chief of Staff of the Defence Forces has a defence focus and is an expert in the area of defence.
Key terms by TF-IDF across 7,948 words from 10 speakers. The summary quotes the highest-scoring sentences verbatim — nothing is paraphrased.
Tellers: Tá, Senators Paul Daly and Joe O'Reilly; Níl, Senators Gerard P. Craughwell and Michael McDowell.
Party shown is the one each member held on 2024-07-03, frozen by a dated join — not their party today. The Oireachtas API publishes no date of birth and returns an empty gender field for every member in this period, so no age or gender breakdown is shown.