Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Tuesday, 30 Sep 2003

Vol. 571 No. 1

Written Answers. - Departmental Agencies.

Jerry Cowley

Ceist:

289 Dr. Cowley asked the Minister for Defence the details of all working groups, advisory groups, consultancies and so on, established or commissioned by his Department since January 2001; the membership of each; the date expected to report; and if it is planned that these should be published or not. [20302/03]

Minister for Defence (Mr. M. Smith)

Apart from routine departmental groups which are established on an ongoing basis, several groups have been established or commissioned by my Department since January 2001.

In January, 2001 Deloitte & Touche was contracted to undertaken a study in relation to the introduction of the management information framework in the Department and the Defence Forces and reported in November, 2001. There are no plans to publish the report.

In March 2001 an independent air accident safety audit of the Air Corps was commissioned, as recommended by the air accident investigation unit report into the Tramore accident. The final report of the consultants, Intercontinental Aviation Consultants, was received in July 2001. There are no plans to publish the report.

In August 2001 a special steering group, comprising members of the Defence Forces and civilian experts, was established to study the nature and extent of bullying-sexual harassment in the Defence Forces, to review existing policies and procedures, to make recommendations on strategies and programmes of awareness and education in the area. The report, known as the Doyle report, was presented in March 2002 and has been made available.

Arising from the publication of the Doyle report, an independent monitoring group, chaired by Dr. Eileen Doyle and which comprises the deputy chief of staff, support, an assistant secretary of the Department and the general secretaries of the representative associations was established. The group is tasked with the co-ordination and management of the implementation process, including the drafting of a full implementation plan to give effect to the fundamental reforms which the report has recommended. There are no plans to publish a report on the work of the group.

Also arising from the recommendations of the Doyle report, an equality steering group was established in September 2002 charged with examining the legislation, statutory instruments, practices, procedures and administrative instructions in the Defence Forces taking account of relevant equality legislation and best practice in employment in Ireland. The group is chaired by a member of the Labour Court and has representatives of the military authorities, the Department and the representative associations. The work of this group is nearing completion. There are no plans to publish the group's final report.

The Government task force on emergency planning was set up in October 2001 following the events of 11 September 2001. Membership may comprise any Department and office, and any State agency under their aegis, which has a lead or support role in Government emergency planning. The work of the task force is ongoing and it has made three confidential reports to Government.

The Defence Forces pensions parallel working group was established in my Department in April 2002 to advise on implementation of the recommendations of the Commission on Public Service Pensions in so far as the Defence Forces are concerned. The group, which was set up as a parallel structure to the central pensions working group established by the Government under the Programme for Prosperity and Fairness, PPF, is comprised of representatives from the civil and military branches of my Department, representatives from the Department of Finance and from RACO and PDFORRA. It has met on a number of occasions but it is not possible at this stage to say when its report will be completed. There are no plans to publish the report.

As part of a range of expenditure reviews approved by Government my Department undertook a review of maintenance of aircraft and in 2002 established a steering group, comprising representatives from the civil and military branches of my Department and the Department of Finance, to oversee the review. It is anticipated that a report will be submitted to senior management in the Department by November 2003. It is intended that the final report will be placed before the Oireachtas.

Earlier this year, an interdepartmental committee on the national military archives was established, comprising representatives from my Department, the Defence Forces (military archives), the Departments of the Taoiseach and Arts, Sport and Tourism, the Office of Public Works, the National Archives and the National Museum, to examine and to advise upon the best means of protecting and safeguarding the national military archives for the future. I anticipate that a report will be finalised before the end of the year. There are no plans to publish the report.