“Populism does not deal with ‘experts’ very well”, cites Cliff Taylor in a recent insightful piece in the Irish Times. He further opines, “we all looked on as Britain sidelined the people who actually knew what they were talking about during the Brexit debate. But in an era of soundbite politics, is Ireland any better?” As regards the Defence Forces (DF), it’s an absolute NO. The recent “Crotty” case of the serving (DF) soldier who was before the courts for the unprovoked assault of a woman on the streets of Limerick is a cause celebre of this reaction by politicians, reporters masquerading as journalists, and the predictable commentariat.
I’m clear, Crotty brought shame on himself and the DF, one of the less than 1% of serving personnel who are before the courts, or have judgments in the courts against them. Neither our Taoiseach, Simon Harris, nor Tánaiste and Minister for Defence, Micheál Martin, waited and judged a pause before joining the ‘lynch mob’ of uninformed commentary with their unwelcome soundbites against the DF, an organisation forbidden to make a public or media response on the issue at hand. Fair on the DF, no?
Soon, a figure of 68 emerged of serving personnel charged or sentenced by a court, of 7,400 personnel, that’s .009%. Journalists sought a breakdown of the 68 offences from the Department of Defence (DOD). It refused. Perhaps not enough offences similar to Crotty in the 68!! Since Crotty, non-DF uniformed personnel were found guilty in the courts, one for sexual offences. Silence ensued from our most senior politicians. Since Crotty, two members of An Taoiseach’s political party, a serving Senator, and former councillor, were in the courts, one sued for assault, the other for money laundering. An Taoiseach offered a feeble public excuse on the former, and silence on the latter. Hardly equity of treatment for the DF.
In the rush to condemn the DF, our most senior politicians drove yet another stake into the heart of serving DF personnel and veterans who served with unblemished records. Its moral cowardice, knowing the serving DF personnel they are excoriating cannot reply. The Chief of Staff (COS) cannot suspend on full pay serving personnel before the courts on serious charges. The Garda Commissioner can.
Early in 2023, Deputy Dr. Cathal Berry T.D., a former member of the DF, recommended to the Minister in the Dáil that this power be granted immediately to the COS. On the day senior DOD personnel accompanied An Tánaiste. DOD has a fulltime section devoted exclusively to Defence Force Regulations (DFR) drafting, approval and Ministerial signature. It’s solely a DOD function. The Minister has now ordered a ‘fig leaf’ solution throughout the DF in ‘Crotty’ instances insisting on the granting ‘Local Leave’ (LL) to such individuals. LL is referenced in DFR A11, but never meant to be used thus.
Officers commanding may grant LL to personnel on the occasion of the death or serious illness of a spouse, child or family member, including close relatives, the latter qualifying relationships defined in DFR. It is commonly, and frequently, granted over decades to personnel whose spouse has suffered a miscarriage, is experiencing an ectopic pregnancy, or family members who have contracted life changing illnesses or are in end-of-life care. Are these tragic and traumatic circumstances now to be grouped together with offences serving personnel are charged with or are awaiting sentencing on. It’s an unedifying political imposition on the DF. It runs the risk of LL’s rightful purpose being undermined.
Crotty was subsequently correctly discharged from the DF after due process of the civil court, followed by the further requirements of due process in Defence Force Regulations (DRFs), which are Secondary Legislation Statutory Instruments. Taoiseach and Tánaiste were cheerleaders in allowing a serving Commandant required to do his duty in the courts to be excoriated because it suited the immediacy of their need for a soundbite. When both were subsequently briefed on DFR obligations, no correction of the public record ensued. Disrespect for serving personnel and veterans. Further moral cowardice.
DF strength is now just north of 7,000 across Army, Air Force and Navy. It’s haemorrhaging a net 50 personnel per month. It cannot survive that HR carnage. Always, Minister Micheál Martin and DOD cite a challenging labour market with Ireland approaching, or at, full employment. This rote excuse of course hides the reality that in all countries, Ireland included, there are always young men and women who wish for an enduring and fulfilling military career. The particular challenge of recruitment and retention in the DF lies elsewhere than in the ‘full employment mantra’. Maybe ask advice from real experts!!
With this disastrous HR backdrop, DOD, solely responsible for strategic DF HR policy, between May to July, 2024, caused the following ‘wishful thinking fanciful’ avalanche of tomes to be drafted, re-drafted, parsed and analysed, and ultimately approved by DOD Secretary General Mc Crum prior to their being signed/launched by Minister Martin; Strategic Framework Update Report dated 15 May, 2024; White Paper on Defence Programme Status Report, May 2024, dated 28 May, 2024; Government Approves High Level Command and Control Arrangements for DF, dated 02 July, 2024; Plan to Revitalise the Reserve Defence Force, dated 24 July, 2024; Defence Policy Review, 2024, dated 25 July, 2024.
Recently, on the front page of Ireland’s largest selling Sunday newspaper, the Sunday Independent, Junior Minister for European Affairs and Defence, Jennifer Carroll Mc Neill, said Ireland needs a Defence budget of €3 billion per year. New to her portfolio, she is being rapidly educated by European colleagues of the state of defence and security on the continent of Europe, mostly especially by Baltic and Eastern European colleagues in meeting rooms, restaurants and bars in Brussels. She’s now ‘St Paul on the Road to Damascus’ on defence. She will soon realise DF operational capability is impossible with a force at historic low strength, no chance of getting to 9,500, nor a suggested future strength of 11,500.
DF culture is about selfless service, loyalty, camaraderie and defence of the unprotected, at home and abroad. It is embraced and practiced by the best of the best. Crotty, and his ilk, are examples of the miniscule infrequent numbers of DF personnel who dishonour this enduring noble and positive culture of the DF. Some, for sinister and mischievous reasoning, seek to undermine DF culture and concentrate their efforts on suggesting that DF culture needs changing. It does NOT. Those serving members who have not embraced it need to be rooted out. Let the mischievous crusading ones who are undermining the DF take care that they do not throw out the baby with the bathwater for their own nefarious reasons.
A report emerged this week of Garda Superintends refusing to take part in Garda reforms in a row over ‘double jobbing’. DF officers and senior NCOs might welcome double jobbing when for a decade they’re doing treble jobbing. Once again, the ‘can do’ ethos of the DF is working to its disadvantage. It won’t develop a ‘blue flu’ or ‘go slow’. Instead, when a work/life balance is impossible with treble jobbing, they seek their discharge. DF ‘can do’ reality is taken full advantage of by DOD in their constant ‘abuse of a dominant position’ with the Chief of Staff not the Accounting Officer for the Government Defence Vote.
In conclusion, the rote repetition by politicians, commentators, journalists, reporters, and the newly minted DF statutory External Oversight Body (EOB), targeting alleged negative DF Culture has become tiresome, trite and dangerously counterproductive. All of these esteemed entities won’t rest until the DF is rendered useless, utterly dysfunctional, incapable of recovery, all overseen by docile compliant generals. The real tragedy is the lack of focus on the toxic culture of neglect and opportunism by our politicians, DOD, journalists, reporters, commentators, that has led to DF neglect and disablement.
Castigating the DF and targeting it with throwaway lines about alleged negative DF culture without understanding the positive essence of that very culture has become a national pastime. It’s akin to shooting fish in a barrel at a time when the state and its ministers expect the DF to prosper and recover in the maelstrom of current international and national security threats. Taoiseach, Minister for Defence, Junior Minister for European Affairs and Defence, are all reaping what they have sown. A broken DF.
#DefenceForces #Soldiers #Saliors #AirCrew #Regulations #LynchMob #Navy #Army #AirCorps #GenderBasedVoilence #SoundbitesPolitics