DF Commission Report

The Minister for Defence in the next government must absolutely stamp on that sort of nonsense carry on.

The people elects the government. The government designs the defence forces. Its that simple.

I've always been a fan of the Ruairí Quinn approach myself.

In the aftermath of Veronica Guerin's assassination, he and Nora Owen convened a meeting of the senior brass of the Departments of Finance of Justice, of which they were respectively in charge.

They outlined to the attendant mandarins the concept of the Criminal Assets Bureau and how the government wanted suitable draft legislation and operational plans to bring before the Oireachtas and create the Bureau within the shortest possible timescale....

Myself and Nora sat down with this group of about 14 different officials from different government departments, including members of the gardaí and a senior official in the Department of Justice.

“Nora said a few words and then I said a few words. The assistant secretary said, ‘Well, thank you very much, minster. We are now going to start our deliberations, and if we come to the conclusion that new measures are necessary and we have to do other things...’

And at that stage I just f**king exploded.

“I said, ‘You haven’t heard what we said. We are going to f**king do this and you are going to make it happen. And, incidentally, if you can’t make it happen yourself, we’ll get someone who will because this is not going to happen again.’”

And so it is my belief that the new government should, in short order, legislate for the CHoD and the force re-org, then sit down every general staff officer, flag, brigadier and GOC, and the Sec Gen, and tell them, "this is f**king well happening; its happening now, and if we hear of any blow back or dragging of feet emanating from YOUR command, your f**king future in contention for the expanded command structure of these Defence Forces will be in serious f**king jeopardy".

We'll be in WWIII and they'll dub it "The Incovenience"

I’m not sure that really works if the promise goes “yes we have had 3 GE since we suggested we would buy a new ship, but honestly this time if we are elected we honestly will!”

I mean now that we are finally into the campaign effectively it will be interesting to see what if anything is said about defence, but I’m firmly in the “pull the other one” about the idea that there is a glut of order announcements/promises just waiting for the campaign.

The poor cllr must of missed the part about ATCP and the defence forces in the report.

https://www.oceanfm.ie/2024/11/20/calls-for-more-resources-to-be-pumped-into-irish-defence-forces/

Lol, you poor naive soul.

Good to see if true, but not going to mean much if the personnel issues aren't fixed.

hey I’m all for getting orders signed off on (wondering/hoping if the NS a might get some love since the AC and Army have/will), and certainly the lead times have to be taken into account. But the specialist roles have to be addressed with a hell of a lot more attention than we’ve seen.

as I said elsewhere, buying a bulk order from the French would certainly be something to be considered, I mean hell we know they would give us good terms and it couldn’t hurt given some of the current views on our position.

OH come on, you know we’d manage to screw up buying American if we tried…

what you are saying makes sense. However, are the numbers you mention enough, are they replacement over a number of years rather than additional vehicles ?

Shephard Media - paywall,but 1 article p.m. is free if you register.

Paragraph 3….I didn't see this published elsewhere…

IMHO to move to LOA3 is some way off. It seems to me there is evidence investment is now being well considered and is for capable equipment. Even if there was a quantum expenditure jump at this point there are capacity issues. The structural issue remains manpower. Navy, buy more vessels - crew. Aer Corps more aircraft technical support. Army, we have pulled out of missions etc. until conditions and retention are improved we are spending on hardware that may not have the personnel to operate or maintain them.

so what we are left with is trying to increase spending in a steady manner while the staffing is being addressed. Is this even fixable?

LOA 3 with jet aircraft is a quantum jump we are not even remotely ready for. A huge technical and physical infrastructure will be needed before we even land one jet. If LOA 2 is achieved in 5 years it will be the height of it. If we are lucky it might see us to LOA 2.5.