Simon Coveney 'absolutely believes' Women of Honour assault and harassment claims

(Left to right) Members of Women of Honour Diane Byrne, Karina Molloy and Yvonne O'Rourke.  Simon Coveney said: "I absolutely believe them and the respect, the sincerity and courage that it took to bring those stories forward." Photo: Gareth Chaney/Collins

Simon Coveney says he "absolutely believes" the Women of Honour group who claim they were subjected to sexual assault and harassment while serving as members of the Defence Forces

The Minister for Defence was responding after being taken to task in the Dáil today over reports that women who reported abuse were cross-examined by their alleged abusers.

Mr Coveney met some of the women involved earlier this week after distressing allegations of rape, sexual assault, bullying and discrimination in the Defence Forces were aired in the RTÉ radio documentary, 'Women of Honour'. He said he was incredibly concerned by their testimony.

"Earlier this week, I met with participants from the Women of Honour group and with a group of serving female members of Defence Forces where I had the opportunity to listen carefully to their experiences in very informative meetings and I can say that I absolutely believe them and the respect, the sincerity and courage that it took to bring those stories forward," Mr Coveney said.

"I'd like to express my deep appreciation to the women, both former and serving members for highlighting this serious matter and for taking the time to meet with me.

Mr Coveney told the Dáil that: "Anybody who chooses to enter the Defence Forces and wants to develop a career, there needs to be guarantees that they will be treated with respect, that they will be safe, that they won't be discriminated against, that they certainly won't be sexually abused or harassed.

"There are very strong views that the culture and the application of current policies, systems and procedures in place for dealing with bullying, harassment, discrimination, sexual harassment and sexual assault have not and are not serving all Defence Force personnel as well as they should be."

The minister went on to "apologise to anyone who has suffered during their time in the Defence Forces and to ensure that the State would carry out an independent review, which would be undertaken by external and entirely independent and unbiased experts in this field."

Mr Coveney says the review will examine the effectiveness of policies, systems and procedures in the Defence Forces.

Sinn Féin spokesperson for Defence, Sorca Clarke, spoke of her "revulsion" at the women's experiences and detailed her admiration for their bravery and determination.

"It is most welcome, what appears to be a complete 180-degree turn by yourself since we last spoke on this issue on the 13th of May, where you said there was a robust system in place, and that there were policies and procedures regarding sexual harassment, bullying and a supportive workplace culture," she said.

Social Democrats spokesperson for Defence Gary Gannon called on Mr Coveney to "act immediately to amend the law so that victims of rape or sexual assault in the Defence Forces can no longer be cross-examined by their abusers."

Mr Coveney said he was "open to the kind of interim measures potentially" that Mr Gannon proposed.

"There needs to be a safe space for people to report confidentiality, without fearing that there's consequences for reporting or being labelled as a troublemaker or whatever," Mr Coveney said.

"And so we're going to do two things, set up this report properly and also introduce interim measures in the weeks ahead."

Mr Coveney said that the chain of command is different to a workplace for "virtually any other person".

"That chain of command is necessary in terms of the functioning military but it also needs to be managed to ensure that people are protected and because you're a superior officer does not mean that you have a licence to control somebody, or to behave inappropriately in terms of an abuse of power," he said.