Vol. 553 No. 3
7 Mr. McGinley asked the Minister for Defence if it is intended to re-introduce the Ombudsman (Defence Forces) Bill, 2002, during the lifetime of this present Government; the likely timescale envisaged; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [14045/02]
In July last year, the Government approved the drafting of an Ombudsman (Defence Forces) Bill, similar to a general scheme of a Bill presented to Government. In January 2002, the draft text of the Bill was submitted to Government and was approved for publication and circulated to Deputies. Unfortunately, due to pressing time constraints, the Bill did not proceed further prior to the end of the last Dáil session. However, it is my intention that the Bill will be enacted this autumn and an appointment made to the new Office of Ombudsman for the Defence Forces as soon as is practicable thereafter.
I am aware that the Minister's reply has been somewhat pre-empted by the Government's decision yesterday to have the Bill re-submitted in the current session. There was a certain amount of disappointment among those involved that it was not passed during the lifetime of the last Dáil. Will the Minister give the House an estimate of when the Bill will come before the House? Will the Minister indicate if the concerns of the representative associations will be incorporated in the new Bill? In particular, will the retention of the existing complaints inquiry system be incorporated into the new Bill or will it be amended to accommodate this?
There are ongoing discussions with the representative associations in connection with any potential amendments which could be considered before this comes back to the House. These are being addressed at present. Regarding the timescale, I hope this passes through both Houses before the end of the year so that the ombudsman for the Defence Forces office would be fully in place by the beginning of 2003. It is important to realise that this is an historic move and the Deputy is right in that there was some disappointment that we did not have everything completed. We have a complaints procedure in place which will work well in the future because not every single grievance will go to the ombudsman – the normal channels of complaint will be open to the Defence Forces. When those are exhausted and someone considers that they have been treated unreasonably the ombudsman will then be necessary. It will be before the end of the year.
That concludes Priority Questions.
