Member of Women of Honour Group left 'deflated' after meeting with Taoiseach

Honor Murphy and Karina Molloy. Picture: Collins Dublin

Paul Hosford Political Correspondent

A member of the Women of Honour group says that she is "deflated" after meeting the Taoiseach.

Karina Molloy told RTÉ Radio’s Today with Claire Byrne that the group was hopeful of convincing Micheál Martin that the Government approach to their case was wrong.

The Government last weel announced that it will establish a judge-led independent review to look at issues related to sexual misconduct, bullying, harassment and discrimination in the Defence Forces.

Allegations of sexism, bullying, sexual assault and rape in the Defence Forces were uncovered in an RTÉ documentary last year.

However, such an approach was rejected in the strongest terms by the Women of Honour group.

Ms Molloy told RTÉ Radio that this morning's meeting had left her "deflated".

“We had hoped to talk more and to persuade him,” she said. despite assurances that a statutory inquiry would take place if recommended by the review. She said that this assurance was not received until 90 minutes into the meeting.

“This review is not fit for purpose, it will not get to the root of the problem” and asked if "rape is not high enough (a concern)?".

In a strongly-worded statement, the group said that Defence Minister Simon Coveney is "conflicted" in his ability to investigate the Defence Forces.

"Mr Coveney has been Minister for Defence in six of the last nine years when many of the serious offences took place in the Forces.  But he has never intervened until the RTE documentary.  Also his party Fine Gael has held the Defence post since 2011 and we believe it is time for fresh thinking.

"We believe only a statutory inquiry will get to the heart of the matters involved and we explained to the Taoiseach that another review, however well-intentioned by Government, would not get to the heart of the toxic culture in the Defence Forces.  If the issues that we have raised are not considered serious enough to merit a full statutory inquiry it is hard to understand what is. We feel this review is throwing more good money after bad as previous reviews have been ineffective. 

"We strongly disagree with the position of government to act quickly in trying to address the issues raised without taking the time to truly understand the extent and depth of the problems.  This will result in nothing more than a painting over the cracks as opposed to lasting and meaningful change."

The groups said that they had "explained to the Taoiseach how disrespectfully we believe we have been treated by Minister Coveney in a number of instances" including initially refusing to allow it  have legal representation present and "most significantly" not "actually treating us as stakeholders in this process".

The statement says the group was "never given us advance warning of anything".

"For example we heard from the media of his appointment of Raise a Concern to take complaints; adjourning our pre-Christmas meeting to claim he was re-thinking matters when he did nothing of the sort; cancelling our meeting on January 20 at short notice claiming it was 'unavoidable' but was a strategy to present a fait accompli; and then early on the morning of last week’s meeting on January 25th, an organisation connected to the Minister put out an email to say Mr Coveney was issuing an important press release that afternoon even though our meeting was not to take place until 3.30pm, meaning his position was written in advance and our attendance was just window dressing as he had no intention of engaging with us."

Ms Molloy said that the review would not address how members of the Defence Forces feel "left behind" when they speak out. Those who make complaints are frequently accused of being troublemakers, she said.

Ms Molloy said that "trust has been broken".