Women of Honour: Decision to bring terms of reference for Defence Forces tribunal to Cabinet a 'stunt'
Member of Women of Honour Diane Byrne. Picture: Gareth Chaney/Collins
The Women of Honour have said Defence Minister Micheál Martin's decision to bring the terms of reference of the forthcoming Defence Forces tribunal to Cabinet on Tuesday is “a stunt”.
Diane Byrne said the group, which had previously called for the Defence Minister to be removed from the current process of setting up the tribunal to examine sexual, physical and emotional abuse within the ranks, do not know what the full terms of reference are.
She also said the group only found out Mr Martin was bringing them to Cabinet at about 7pm on Monday.
“We did not know these terms were being brought to Cabinet and we do not even know what they are," she said.
“We thought we were still in negotiations with the minister and his department.
“While we do believe there may be better terms still being agreed, this has all come as a complete shock to us.
“The whole process needs to be whiter than white and we only engaged with it to ensure that we could have some constructive impact on the terms of reference and the tribunal.
She added: “He has issued a statement saying he consulted with stakeholders ‘extensively’. We spoke to him and his officials at length over the past months, but we have to ask ourselves — did he even bother to listen to us?
“It is my belief that this process is being designed to completely control the amount of truth that is going to be allowed to get out about abuses and mistreatment of personnel in the Defence Forces.
“That is not why we wanted to engage with the minister in the first place.”
The tribunal is the main recommendation of the Independent Review Group panel report, which was published in March last year.
The IRG report made 13 recommendations. Since publication, a number of measures introduced include a new bill to give gardaí sole jurisdiction to investigate alleged sexual offences committed within Ireland by personnel subject to military law.
One of the main terms of reference for the tribunal is to establish whether the complaints processes in the Defence Forces are fit for purpose.
But groups like the Women of Honour and the Canary Movement — which is the biggest group of survivors of mistreatment in the Defence Forces — have always said incidents of abuse should be looked at rather than just complaints.
This is because most Defence Forces personnel who allege mistreatment of varying forms do not engage in the existing complaints processes because they do not trust them.
The Canary Movement has described the forthcoming tribunal as being “set up to fail”.
Canary Movement press officer Alan Nolan said: “Micheál Martin is continuing the wrongdoing by the way he has handled the process to agree on the terms of reference.
“We have consistently refused to be involved in what we have always maintained is a deeply flawed process.
“The minister is expecting his Cabinet members to sign off on a tribunal into wrongdoing that will investigate actions of the office of the minister of defence and the Department of Defence.
“Yet, the tribunal is being set up by a minister of defence and his department.
“The current terms of reference again show the whole process to be a total farce.”
He added: “As this tribunal will not only not have the support of a majority of the very people it is supposed to be representing, it will achieve nothing of value.
“It will also be a massive waste of public money.”
The minister has been asked for comment.
