I have a feeling the specifics will be gone over in multiple sub-threads, but let's use this for discussion of the report in one neat place, shall we?
Horrible-looking link to the PDF, but it works.
With a small reshuffle in government likely i wonder could we see Defence get a full minister so some one can drive the commission report?
I imagine the reshuffle would be relatively limited to the FG side, not very hopefully defence would be elevated.
Ya I’d say the current arrangement is as good as it gets. Tanaiste would be a heavyweight, as these things go, for all the good this does.
There will be no significant reshaping of portfolios <12 months from an election.
Personally I have no major issue with Defence and Foreign Affairs being a joint portfolio. I cannot envisage any scenario where any current Minister, if in charge of Defence alone, could have advanced the programme of change any further than it has been.
In any case, in the current geopolitical situation, traditional Irish foreign affairs concerns have been largely replaced with issues which are matters of Defence also.
As per the commission report the ATCP role is been wound down around the country. The 2 million that is mentioned for portlaoise is that out of the DOJ budget?
Maximum age for recruitment into military reserves to be set at 53 (irishexaminer.com)
Not sure how much practical difference it will make, as I don't see huge numbers of people in their 40s and 50s wanting to join the reserves. They mention it as a way to get former PDF&RDF members into the reserves, but they can currently re-enlist up until age 45 anyway.
A second thing I note is that the outsourcing of Medicals has been presented by the government as a done deal, with Micheál Martin stating in the Dáil earlier this month that "There is a contract in place to outsource the Part 2 medicals over a four-year period for both the PDF and the RDF, amounting to some 10,000 medicals in total...".
But from the attached article; "(Neil Richardson,RDFRA Rep) said that a proposal to outsource medical examinations to a private company had not come to fruition."
So who is lying....?
Who gives a **** who does the medicals so long as they don't form a blockage in the system?
But more widely, medical plans for all DF members and their immediate families need to be guaranteed to a gold standard to improve recruitment and retention. If we cannot compete with certain sectors taking military talent (and we really cannot), then we have to take a holistic approach to looking after their life needs, so that they will not have any concerns with housing or health or providing for their families, whether in service at home or overseas.
But they do form a blockage in the system. They're the source of the biggest delay in the recruiting process.
paschaldonohoe.ie/minister-donohoe-announces-additional-funding-of-e2-25-billion-for-public-capital-projects-out-to-2026/
*Funding the Level of Ambition 2 programme in the Defence Forces*
*Revised NDP Capital funding for defence
2024 -€ 176m
2025- € 215m
2026- € 220m*
He's going to be Taoiseach for 11 months. Assuming the Tánaiste's portfolios do not change, then I can't see the general approach of this Government changing very much either.
Will be interesting to see what Harris' remarks around policy will be when he is appointed.
The increase for next year for the extra 2 helicopters, MRV downpayment and Radar downpayment?
If it'll even stretch that far!
at least they still use paragraphs
This seems to be the issue all over NATO's European members, including Britain.
Only Macron is trying to alert people about it, but that is largely because he wants to put the spotlight on Marine Le Pen's Putin affiliations ahead of the Euro elections.
HSenior army officer slams government defence plan as 'catastrophic' and 'act of self-harm' https://jrnl.ie/6348721
Lets see if Varadkars successor takes any of this on board. Not very optimistic myself.
So at the end of Q1 they were suppouse to have.
RDF Vision & Regeneration
Cyber Defence Update
Armour needs phase complete
Naval Fleet Needs phase well on the way
Extra Medium lift Needs Phase ( To be bought in Q4)
lets do nothing…. mission accomplished…. tea and medals all round
The medical's are causing a huge issue with recruitment lads are getting fed up of waiting for dates for medicals 2-6 months I've heard in some cases
Along with that many serving PDF don't have up to date medicals because of the backlog... No medical no courses , no medical no overseas etc
It's a role that can be most certainly completed by a civilian but that would just make too much sense ...
FWIW, we use a mix of army personnel and civilian contractors to run our annual medicals here in the US. Maybe 60/40 at a rough guess.
I see Mr Martin is off worrying about Gaza today. If he only put a fraction of the passion he has for Gaza in to his part time job as Defence Minister we might see more movement on the Commission report
Looks at the number of protests, debates, airtime etc the Gaza conflict and Palestine/Israel gets compared to the state of the DF…
Sadly he’s focused on where the majority of voters are focused on.
I would say elements of the media are more interested in palestine and i dont think to many election candiates are been asked about palestine when looking for votes.Unfortuntly i married in 2 family that are grass roots SF and they cant understand why there elected people are going on about palaestine as that wont sort out the issues that matter
Taken from DOD website:
The Tánaiste and Minister for Defence, Michael Martin, today welcomed record levels of capital funding for Defence over the next two years.
The revised allocations of €215 million in 2025 and €220 million in 2026 will boost ongoing efforts to modernise and upgrade equipment and infrastructure in the Defence Forces.
Announcing the increased capital allocations, the Tánaiste said:
“The increased capital funding is a clear demonstration of Government’s strong commitment to invest in, and support, the transformation of our Defence Forces into a modern, agile military force, serving at home and overseas, while also responding to increasingly more complex global security threats and events.”
The increased capital funding will accelerate transformation of the Defence Forces in line with the Strategic Framework and objectives set out in the Detailed Implementation Plan for the Report of the Commission on the Defence Forces (CODF).
It will see investment in a range of equipment including Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) Equipment, Helmets and Body Armour, Chemical, Biological, Radiological & Nuclear (CBRN) Equipment, and Night Vision Equipment, as well as progressing critically important equipment projects such as the development of Military Radar Systems and Sub-Sea Awareness Capabilities, Naval Fleet Management and Replacement, and the purchase of new fixed and rotary wing aircraft, including a Military Transport Aircraft
In addition, the increased allocations will accelerate progress on a significant number of Infrastructural projects over the coming years, such as;
Absolutely nothing new. Not a line item or a project that hasn't been included in 10 different documents or releases in the last 3 years.
I really wish they'd just stop talking and get on with it. The glossy brochures being the priority over actual action, and innovation, and progress just pisses me off to high heaven.
The fingerprints of civil service inertia are all over a brain-dead press release like that, and the sooner a CHoD is appointed and his office take over planning and procurement activity the better.
Oh my God! The country is on a war footing!
To be brutally honest the DOD/DF just don't have the capacity in a variety of areas to manage a load of large procurement projects simultaneously.
We could dump 5 billion into the DOD tomorrow to buy it and they couldn't manage it. It's not just this list that'll be (hopefully) bought in the next 5-10 years,replace the LTAV , Piranha III (and they seem to want more variants of that so more complex again), MRV, the AW139 fleet replacement, upgrade the Jav, and a good few other smaller but still substantial projects.
I'd be shocked if the DOD can mange 2-3 of these at once.
True, time and again that's been demonstrated, but why just accept the silo's? I mean other departments have done much more procurement than the DOD/DF (to be clear not saying that they are necessarily good at it, just they have had more capital budgets to play with), why not pull in some extra personnel to increase Project Management/Procurement if anyone was serious about fixing the issues?
Or alternatively push more into the "easy" areas like the base facilities and advance them much more aggressively, that wouldn't hurt the retention issues?
That's not even going for any "radical" ideas.
Dont worry as soon as Tom in Accounts comes back from his sick leave he will process the Purchase Orders for the AW101 Fleet and the new MRV.
Tom has now gone on extended sick leave
