Women of Honour want Micheál Martin removed from process to set up Defence Forces tribunal
Member of Women of Honour Diane Byrne said Micheál Martin 'needs to step back'. Picture: Gareth Chaney/Collins Photos
The Women of Honour group has asked Taoiseach Leo Varadkar for a meeting to discuss removing Micheál Martin from the current process of setting up the Defence Forces tribunal.
The group believes the Tánaiste's role as Defence Minister conflicts with the reasons for the tribunal in the first place, to examine sexual, physical and emotional abuse within the ranks.
Women of Honour (WoH), which represents serving and former serving soldiers who suffered abuse in the Defence Forces, has also called for the Attorney General to be at the meeting.
The call comes after Mr Martin made what they have called a "disparaging" remark in a recent letter to the WoH’s legal team.
The tribunal's terms of reference were published and immediately rejected by survivors.
The campaign groups, Women of Honour and the Canary Movement, represent more than 350 abuse survivors and they say they believe the tribunal’s remit is “too narrow and too vague”.
In addition, they say the tribunal will do “nothing” about the culture of abuse and victimisation in the Defence Forces and that the tribunal now amounts to little more than a “box-ticking” exercise.
The tribunal is the main recommendation of the Independent Review Group panel report, which was published in March.
It detailed allegations of brutal and “sadistic” abuse, including the rape of both male and female soldiers.
In a statement on Wednesday morning, the WoH said: “Following the most recent developments, including the disparaging comments, and extreme constraints being placed on the tribunal by the Department of Defence, we have written today to the Taoiseach.
“We have requested him to facilitate a meeting between the Minister for Defence and the Attorney General and ourselves to finalise terms of reference for an inquiry.
“The Taoiseach and the Tánaiste will be answerable to the inquiry and conflicted as a result.
“As the AG’s role is to be their legal adviser, we believe it would be important to have an agreed independent party present to witness the process.”
WoH member Diane Byrne added: “The entire process needs to be whiter than white.
“The minister is involved in designing a process that will investigate the office of the Minister of Defence and the Department of Defence.
On Monday, the WoH published a November 2 letter their legal adviser Raymond Bradley received from Mr Martin.
In it, he said the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act 2005 would not be on the list of legislation covered by the tribunal.
Mr Martin told Mr Bradley: “This cannot be included because a reference to this act would be very broad and could conceivably include 'trips, slips and falls' that may have occurred in the workplace.”
The comment prompted the WoH to issue a statement, in which they said Mr Martin had “sought to equate the unsafe nature of the Defence Forces’ workplace of rapes, sexual assaults and other outrages with low level ‘slips, trips and falls’”.
They demanded the act be explicitly included in the terms of reference of the tribunal and called on Mr Martin to “withdraw his trivialisation” of victims' and survivors' claims.
