THE CHIEF OF Staff of the Defence Forces, Lieutenant General Seán Clancy has said Taoiseach Simon Harris’s comments following Cathal Crotty’s sentencing reflected a “degree of frustration”. 

Following the suspended sentence given to Defence Forces member Cathal Crotty last month, after he viciously assaulted Natasha O’Brien, Taoiseach Simon Harris said anyone with convictions in the Defence Forces should be removed.

His comments were made ahead of Crotty being formally dismissed from the Defence Forces.

When asked today by The Journal if he agrees with the Taoiseach that anyone with convictions should not serve in the Defence Forces, Clancy would not give a direct answer but said that following the Crotty case:

“The Taoiseach during his commentary was reflecting a degree of frustration perhaps, like I was.”

He added: “And that was a reflection of the frustrations many of us felt.

“I should be very clear and I’ll be very clear right now, there is no place in our organisation for any form of gender-based violence, any form of abuse or any form of inappropriate behaviour”.

Clancy added that anybody convicted of acts “of that nature” will face consequences in the Defence Forces. 

He said the Defence Forces will examine individual cases after they have been through the court process. 

“We apply fair procedures and fair processes to ensure that the outcomes and the conclusions we come to are sustainable in the medium and long term,” Clancy said.

Currently, the Chief of Staff does not have powers to suspend personnel who are under suspicion of offences.

This would require legislation, but in the interim members of the Irish Defence Forces can be taken off active duty when facing charges or convictions of sexual assault or rape.

This is known as “local leave”.

Convictions

Following the Cathal Crotty case, the Government requested an audit from the Chief of Staff on the number of serving Defence Force members with convictions. 

This information was not immediately made available, leading to some frustration within Government.

Once provided, it revealed that 68 members of the force have been convicted, or are currently before the civil courts, on a range of criminal offences including public order, drink driving, drugs offences, physical assault and sexual offences.

A breakdown of these figures has not been made public.

When asked today why the statistics were not made immediately available to the Government when requested, Clancy said the information was there but given its sensitivity had to be collated in the correct and appropriate format.

“The 68 number is a fluid number… as people go through the courts and things happen in the courts and we become aware of them the figure will change,” Clancy said.

He said he knows the details of how many relate to gender-based violence, but would not disclose a breakdown, given its sensitivity.

“The information around the particular numbers is sensitive information, we haven’t given out the numbers,” Clancy said.

It is understood that some of the 68 have already been discharged from the Defence Forces while some cases have been struck out. Two thirds of the 68 cases are still before the courts.

Clancy said any cases currently before the courts are being dealt with “on a case by case basis”.

When asked today if he is satisfied with the information provided to the Government by the Defence Forces, Tánaiste Micheál Martin told The Journal that there were “some issues in the beginning” but that steps are being taken to ensure better data collection in the future. 

Meanwhile, the Tánaiste did not agree with the Taoiseach’s position that anyone with convictions should be removed from the Defence Forces.

Instead, he said there is “a spectrum of offences” and that he is most concerned with Section 3 assault offences, sexual assault and rape.