LAST UPDATE | 27 Mar 2023

TÁNAISTE MICHEÁL MARTIN has told the Women of Honour (WoH) group that the publication of an independent report into allegations of bullying and sexual harassment will be a “watershed moment”.

This afternoon, Martin met with the WoH group to discuss the upcoming report, which is due to be published tomorrow.

The WoH are a number of female Defence Forces members who acted as whistleblowers in regard to their own treatment over bullying and sexual harassment in their military lives.

Their claims were detailed in a high-profile RTÉ radio documentary in late 2021.

It detailed the alleged shortcomings of reporting processes in the forces, as well as the devastating personal and professional implications of abuse and attempts to report it.

Some victims claimed they suffered depression, eating disorders and suicidal ideation as a result of their experiences, while some left their jobs in the forces.

Speaking after the meeting with Martin today, Diane Byrne, a former Defence Forces captain and member of the Women of Honour, said that it was a constructive meeting but that the WoH did not receive specific details of the report.

“It was, you could say constructive. We still are none the wiser in a lot of senses, we don’t have any recommendations, we haven’t seen the report,” Byrne said.

“But the Tánaiste gave certain strong impressions that he is keen to re-engage, that we will be involved going forward but we’re still waiting. We’re still not clued in at this point.”

Byrne told reporters that Martin said he would bring all of the report’s recommendations to Cabinet for approval.

“We’ve questioned in relation to what the manner or the mechanism in which that will be done and will we have engagement in that process because we believe that in any of these things, there needs to be a victim-led approach to designing the solutions.”

Retired captain Yvonne O’Rourke said that the Tánaiste reiterated to the group that it would be a “watershed moment”.

“I think that word itself is powerful, so we are expecting history to be changed,” O’Rourke said.

The Independent Review Group report, which was received by the Tánaiste in early February, is due to go to Cabinet tomorrow.

“The Tánaiste held a constructive meeting with the Women of Honour group today,” said a spokesperson for Martin.

“He now intends to bring the report of the Independent Review Group to Government for consideration tomorrow.

Alongside his meeting with the WoH, the Tánaiste also met with representative bodies for the Defence Forces – RACO and PDFORRA.

Speaking to The Journal, President of PDFORRA Mark Keane said that there was “productive engagement” with Martin.

“We had a productive engagement with the Tánaiste but as we have not seen the report we have looked for further meetings and then will consult with our members,” Keane said.

“The clock is against us but the recommendations must be introduced as a matter of urgency.”

Conor King, General Secretary of RACO, said that he was hopeful the report would bring forward positive changes to the Defence Forces.

“As always, we welcome the Tánaiste’s willingness to listen to the concerns of our members,” King said.

“We are hopeful that the recommendations from this report will herald a positive change for the Defence Forces, and address the shortcomings highlighted both by the Women of Honour and other contributors including our own association.”

However, King said that it was important that there needed to be both adequate funding and staffing to ensure that the recommendations could be implemented.

It is understood that Martin told the WoH and representative bodies that he could not show them the report today ahead of Government meeting tomorrow on grounds of Cabinet confidentiality.

Byrne said that the WoH would give the report consideration following its publication, but would be continuing to push for a full statutory inquiry if one was not recommended.

Earlier today, Byrne told RTÉ Radio that the WoH would only support a full statutory inquiry into their allegations. 

The WoH did not co-operate with the report as they disagreed with the use of a review because it lacked the more robust standing of a full statutory inquiry.  

Byrne said her group believes that a key failing in the IRG is that it looked only to the Irish Defence Forces and not at the Department of Defence or the Office of the Ombudsman for the Defence Forces.  

“You can’t fix something if you don’t have the full depth of what’s broken with the terms of reference that were put forward in the IRG. They were flawed in themselves because they looked specifically at the Defence Forces.

“It was (the IRG) generally a paper exercise. This needs to be much, much broader. The issues extended into the Department of Defence, it extended into the ombudsman.

“We’re not suggesting for a second that you believe everything we say we’re saying put a statutory process in place to truly investigate and understand the extent of the issues and then we can start putting solutions in place,” she added. 

Byrne said she believes that the IRG was put in place by Government “to delay and defuse the situation” rather than bring about a solution.

Additional reporting by Tadgh McNally