Vol. 396 No. 8
7 Mr. McCartan asked the Minister for Defence the last occasion on which Defence Forces Regulations were generally reviewed and updated; if any such general review and updating is planned; and if he will give the number of volumes and pages at present in Defence Forces Regulations.
Defence Force Regulations are divided into six main categories containing in all 50 separate regulations.
The provisions of the regulations are reviewed on a continuous basis and updated by: the making of amendments thereto; incorporating the amendments in the main regulations and having them reprinted; and rewriting a new version of existing regulations.
During the past five years, for example, 258 amendments to regulations have been made and at present three regulations are in course of preparation for reprinting, incorporating all existing amendments thereto. New versions of a further five regulations are in course of preparation.
Will the Minister agree that the regulations which cover virtually every aspect of life in the Defence Forces is a daunting document of such complexity that it would take an expert to understand them? Will the Minister indicate whether there is a possibility that they can be made more easily understood? I thank the Minister for outlining that there are six main sections with 50 regulations, but there are myriads of amendments, additions and substractions to the regulations that make them unintelligible.
I sympathise with the Deputy's point of view and I will talk with the military authorities about it. I, too, have seen the volumes and agree the regulations have developed incomprehensibly.
I will be visiting Army Headquarters tomorrow with other members of The Workers' Party, so with trepidation I would ask the Minister to agree that one of the problems in this area is that a large Civil Service has written itself into existence with the continued existence of this complex set of regulations and that that must be looked at in addition to simply reorganisation of the regulations?
I had forgotten about the visit of The Workers' Party Deputies to military headquarters. They are very welcome. Will Deputy McCartan raise that issue with the authorities there? It is part of the military mind to encumber the command structure with regulations to cover every opening. It can get to the stage where things need to be trimmed. There is a research job involved there for someone with legal experience who can take the regulations apart and reorganise them. Additions have been made on an ad hoc basis up to now without condification. What is required is a proper codification of the regulations. Perhaps the Deputy will mention that to the military authorities tomorrow and I will be coming at it from the other end.
