DF Commission Report

Hopefully.

In the 80s & 90s we had a Taoiseach who was telling the country to tighten its belts, while owning an actual private island himself, and wearing shirts that today would set you back nothing less than €200 each.

Followed by

A taoiseach who wrote to developers demanding a considerable donation for government support of a planning application

followed by

A Taoiseach who let a man be minister for Transport someone who had not paid tax on the "donations" received from developers. Who later admitted that he had been informed members of his party were actively seeking bribes from developers, but did nothing to stop it.

followed by

A taoiseach who never had a bank account, who claims the large sum of cash he had lying about was money he won on the horses...who definitely never took a bribe and sees himself as the next President of Ireland.

But hey, lets send 500 ill equipped troops overseas with the UN so we can boast to the world about our "Soft Power" and "punching above our weight, internationally".

While we are at it, lets give Overseas Foreign Aid to numerous tinpot dictatorships, so they won't need to cut their spending on military equipment, to look after their own people. You'd be shocked how many of our OFA recipients have a larger defence budget than us, as well as significantly larger military forces.

Another Postive step forward today for the Defence Forces and more so for the Navy and Air Corps

They mention a new department of defence forces do they mean Army?

The westmeath Civil War has started in the latest round in who wants an army barracks

An its actually still DOD property despite all the pre construction work the LDA has done!

Its gas that eamon ryan wants the army out of his area and the local Green Mayor wants them in hers

Build it on that fuggin Curragh golf course. Pile of ****.

So with the new equal services will that mean less army bosses? Where in the new structure will the renamed ARW fit in will they answer to the new Chief of Defence directly?

Seems pretty much the same, both Retention and Recruitment...

I saw an ad doing the rounds for a sparks paying 100k plus company van and phone. The trades have gone mad!

To be honest knowing some sparks I don't even them that amount, the job can be shite and physically crippling in a short space of time.

Given the government have signed of on the new command chain will the current Chief of Staff transfer to the new role of Chief of Defence or will they look for new blood?

I don't think any such arrangement will exist, because the CHoD will be of a higher rank than any of the forces' heads. And the position will likely equate with any of the senior professional roles in the public sector, like Garda Commissioner, Chief Medical Officer, Chief State Solicitor etc, 7 year permanent contract with a 3 year extension if mutually agreed.

Personally I think any EU citizen Officer with the requisite experience of strategic and change management in a senior uniformed service should be able to apply.

Chief of Staff and Chief of Defence are going to very different challenges, even for the incumbent of the former.

I listened to the committe on defence meeting yesterday this morning on my way down the country and it did not fill me with confidence seams to be lots of plans and no action.

I was trying to be postivie with SAR Top Cover you not so but turns out you are right. They are still doing full ATCP and they want out but no one can make a call. Cathal berry reckons in regards to the 3 service chiefs the government can appoint acting chiefs asap.

The primary radar seams a joke. They have more over seas trips to make to inform still.

Worst of all matt carthy of all people asked for evidence of what they have done so far and they could barely put an answer to him

The Immediate actions are not complete, almost a year after the Govt committed to LOA2 (by 2028). The Implementation plan for the main body of the CoDF recommendations are not complete. No material changes made that would assist in the recruitment and retention of staff in the Defence forces.

We got a few new highly paid civil servants though...

Cathal Berry made a good point (unchallenged) regarding the ARW Allowance dispute, and the fact that after all these years(14 I think?), the back pay still has not been paid. This shows the lack of commitment by successive governments, even now. Why would the members of the defence forces have any confidence in any of the promises being delivered from CoDF, when they have yet to deliver on the (court ordered) decision to award ARW members back pay?

So lets all join the forums to review Irish Security Policy at the end of this month, so we can watch govt kick the can further down the road.

It's not as if there is a war on in the European Continent or anything.