Senator Gerard Craughwell- speech from 9 Feb 2022

My good friend and colleague Fergal Quinn welcomed my two granddaughters into the world when they were born, Elie and Isabel, so he's not here today so I have to welcome Alice who was born yesterday evening at five o'clock into the world and wish her the best as she travels through the world. So at any rate, the Commission on the Future of Defence has reported and I know Acting Leader you'll have an interest in that today. One of the things that can happen straight away is that they can follow through on the recommendation that PD Flora and RACO if they wish can now affiliate to the Irish Congress of Trade Unions and the quicker that happens the better. I've held my counsel on that over the last six years because it was important that it came from the official side. That has happened now and I think that both of those organisations should be allowed to affiliate should they wish to do that. It's vitally important for the negotiations and pay rounds that will start in over the coming months. This week the Minister announced an independent review or an independent investigation into an event that took place in McKee Barracks. It's in the public media, I'm not going to get into the ins and outs of it but what it has done is it has undermined the Chief of Staff of the Defence Forces. Chief of Staff had initiated an investigation, officers were charged and admonished. There is a potential for a court-martial coming forward and by bringing in the third party to carry out an investigation now we have a serious problem of double jeopardy and this could finish up in the courts. I have no idea what the Minister was thinking or who advised him at the time to initiate a separate investigation. The military police are statutorily in place to carry out investigations. There is a military judge, there is a military court system, there are penalties that can be awarded by the military, there is an appeals mechanism, there is no place for somebody coming in from the outside. Should it be an issue that they feel the Gardaí should have been involved in, that fell to the Chief of Staff to decide that, not a Minister. I think we need to have a discussion on that at some stage in the near future. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.