Dorcha Lee: It's time for people to have their say on our national defences

The Minister has accepted the concept that national defence is five-dimensional, land, air, maritime, space and cyber.

The commission must be free to recommend its independent status, and also free to recommend increasing the level of funding currently provided for defence, or this review body will be a meaningless exercise. Photo: Neil Michael

Public submissions on the Defence Forces Commission have just been invited on the Commission’s website, with a closing date of 5 March. 

In July 2014, when Simon Coveney took over as Minister for Defence the first time, he made a crucial decision. A green paper on defence, drafted by his departmental officials, had been in circulation since the previous October, but had only drawn 122 submissions from organisations and individuals.