Is cúis mhór áthais dom teacht ar ais go dtí an Seanad agus an Bille seo a chur os bhur gcomhair. Tá tábhacht ar leith ag baint leis go háirithe maidir le ceannaireacht na bhFórsaí Cosanta agus eagar nua a chur ar na Fórsaí.
Ba mhaith liom i dtosach báire mo bhuíochas a ghabháil leatsa, a Chathaoirligh, leis an Seanadóir Donie Cassidy agus libhse ar fad go raibh sibh sásta am a sparáil chun an Bhille a rith tríd an Teach.
I thank the Cathaoirleach and his colleagues for affording us the opportunity to bring the Bill before the House. Notwithstanding the pressures of time and competing legislation, it was necessary to try to complete this legislation before the recess. I appreciate that making time available to allow us complete our work this afternoon could not have been easy.
We all recognise the importance of Defence and appreciate the job our Defence Forces do, both at home and overseas. The can do approach and professionalism of members of the Defence Forces have long been recognised by successive Governments.
Defence is, of course, a considerable public undertaking and in 1998 will involve expenditure of £570 million and the employment of 13,200 people, including military and civilian personnel, throughout the country. My Department manages a property portfolio of approximately 21,000 acres, which includes 34 permanent military installations and holds equipment and other assets to the value of over £250 million. It accounts for approximately 4 per cent of Government spending. Accordingly, the Government is committed to ensuring that all these resources are used wisely to enable the Defence Forces deliver high quality services and at the same time give value for money to the taxpayer.
The Government's objective is a properly structured, well equipped Defence Forces, capable of meeting their roles in the most efficient and effective way. In addition, the Defence Forces of the future must have the capacity and the flexibility to adapt to a changing environment.
Next Monday one of the most important events in the Defence Forces calendar takes place in the Curragh Camp. It is the commissioning ceremony for 34 cadets who come from different backgrounds, with different skills, ready to give their all for their country. The ceremony epitomises what the Defence Forces stands for — a proud organisation with a distinguished history. These young, ambitious leaders are ready to lead the Defence Forces well into the next millennium. They are ready to face the changes which are necessary to ensure that the organisation is ready and able to face the many challenges that lie ahead.
In that regard, one of the key developments currently taking place is the reorganisation of the Defence Forces. This is not something that is happening in Ireland alone. With the changing international environment, many countries are having a hard look at their defence forces and the requirements for the future. No organisation, civil or military, can afford to sit still. One must move with the times to progress in any form.
The reform process for the Defence Forces is the most far-reaching and wide-ranging which the organisation has seen since its foundation. It is a most complex process and one which cuts across all areas of military life. It has been acknowledged by all concerned that reform of the Defence Forces is both necessary and overdue. All major aspects of Defence Forces reform are contained in the Defence Forces Review Implementation Plan, which covers the years 1996 to 1998 and which followed from the 1994 Price Waterhouse review of the Defence Forces.
The plan has been widely circulated throughout the Defence Forces and all participants are working in the full knowledge of the ultimate objective, which is to have the Defence Forces structured and organised in such a way as to enable them carry out their roles as laid down by the Government in September, 1993. It will be an organisation with enhanced operational capacity and one of which all its personnel can be proud.
Some of the major reforms being carried out as a result of the Defence Forces Review Implementation Plan involve the reorganisation of the Defence Forces from a four command structure to a three brigade structure and an enhanced organisational and operational capability through larger unit sizes. There will be nine larger infantry battalions instead of the current 11 and there will be less top-heavy structures in place. There will also be a reduced manpower level to 11,500 and lower age profiles and new career structures for officers and enlisted personnel.
Another recommendation contained in the implementation plan provides for the revision of the range of statutory duties of the Chief of Staff, specifically to give a new emphasis and focus to his responsibility for the effectiveness, efficiency, military organisation and economy of the Defence Forces; and the allocation of the duties of the Adjutant-General and the Quartermaster-General to two new appointments of Deputy Chief of Staff, one with responsibility for operational matters and the second for support matters. Having one person at the helm of the Defence Forces makes for a more streamlined management system. The Bill will give legislative effect to these recommendations.
The unique structure of primary and secondary legislation governing the Defence Forces also forms part of the background to the Bill. Based on the Defence Act, 1954, and supplemented by an extensive set of Defence Force regulations, the purpose of this legal structure is to facilitate the
Minister's control and regulate the Army, Naval Service and Air Corps in every detail. However, in many ways, the 1954 Act reflects the priorities and concerns of another age with a major emphasis on procedural detail.
In the Defence Forces in recent years, a major effort has been devoted to blowing away the administrative cobwebs. Instead of formal regulation, many matters are now dealt with by simple administrative instruction issued by the military authorities, enabling a more creative and flexible approach to management. However, in the area of organisation, this effort has been stymied by the inflexibility of the 1954 Act with regard to organisation. At present, as Minister, I am obliged to specify by regulation each and every appointment in each and every unit of the Defence Forces. Every time personnel are moved around I should, in theory, make yet another amendment to the regulation, a thick volume known as CS 4.
The Bill will introduce two major innovations in military management. First, it will put in place a modern management structure along the lines outlined above as suggested by the EAG. Second, it will empower that management structure with the flexibility to manage effectively the manpower resources of the Defence Forces by removing the requirement for a major body of regulations.
Since the launch of the Strategic Management Initiative, there has been a greater focus throughout the public service on clarifying lines of authority and accountability and on specifying clearly the objectives to be met. The vesting of authority in senior public service managers must be balanced against the need to ensure that the position of the elected Government is not in any way eroded. The organisational changes proposed in the Bill are grounded in this balanced approach. Where before there where three quasi independent offices, now there will be a single integrated military headquarters with a single officer clearly in charge. The Bill also reflects the provisions of the Defence Forces Review Implementation Plan adopted by the previous Government. Military command of the Defence Forces will remain with the Minister.
In many ways the Bill is technical in nature. In the course of its preparation, many different issues concerning both the new management structure and the new approach to regulating the military organisation were raised. Senior military personnel have been intimately involved in this process and many of their suggestions have been incorporated into the Bill. In addressing all of these issues, the expert advice of the parliamentary draftsman's office has determined our approach. I appreciate its considerable assistance in clarifying many difficult legal issues.
Sections 12 and 13 of the Defence Act, 1954, are the principal sections being amended. Section 12 provides for three principal military office holders and prescribes the terms and conditions attaching to these three appointments. Section 13 establishes in the Department of Defence three principal military branches, the heads of which are the Chief of Staff, the Adjutant-General and the Quartermaster-General. Under the terms of the Act, the Minister for Defence has assigned to each of them specified duties relating to the business of the Department of Defence. Each is directly responsible for and reports to the Minister on the performance of those duties. In addition, a co-ordinating role in relation to the business of the principal military branches of the Department has been delegated to the Chief of Staff.
In accordance with the implementation plan, the Bill before the House provides that the existing three military branches of the Department of Defence will be replaced by a single military element to be known as Defence Forces Headquarters. The Chief of Staff will be the head of Defence Forces Headquarters and will be supported by the two Deputy Chiefs of Staff, one dealing with operational matters and the other with support matters. The Chief of Staff, who will as heretofore be appointed by the President on the advice of the Government, will be given the full range of duties heretofore assigned to the Chief of Staff, the Adjutant-General and the Quartermaster-General. He will have responsibility for the overall management of the Defence Forces. The Deputy Chiefs of Staff, who will be appointed by the Government and to whom duties will be delegated by the Chief of Staff with the approval of the Minister, will report to the Chief of Staff and not directly to the Minister.
The amendment Bill provides for the recommended designations and for the reorganisation of the duties of the existing three principal military office holders, for smooth transitional arrangements and for adaptations. The remaining sections of the Bill involve relatively minor changes and mainly provide for the replacement of the existing appointments of Adjutant-General and Quartermaster-General with the appointments of Chief of Staff, Deputy Chief of Staff (Operations) or Deputy Chief of Staff (Support), as the case may be.
Since the adoption of the three year implementation plan in 1996, an excellent start has been made in rectifying the many deficiencies identified in the consultants' report. Through a voluntary early retirement scheme costing nearly £50 million, we have achieved a strength of 11,500. The final phase of the scheme, which will involve about 225 personnel, will be launched next week. There has been substantial progress reducing the number of medically unfit personnel. We have introduced a policy of continuous recruitment and a new manpower policy for enlisted personnel. We have 300 first timers serving with UNIFIL at present. In the case of officer promotions, progress has been made to a more merit based system.
Although these achievements represent major milestones along the path of reform, we must be mindful of the need to underpin our recent successes through longer term reform in the management structures. The present top level structure of the Defence Forces was designed to meet the needs of a bygone era. It was deliberately designed to ensure that no single military officer could exercise excessive authority and undermine the position of the Minister. Accordingly, each of the three autonomous branches was headed by an independent office holder reporting personally to the Minister with the Chief of Staff confined to exercising an unspecified co-ordinating role. However, while the command and management structures of the Defence Forces must be consistent with maintaining civil control of the military, in the modern age we must also have regard to good management practices.
In the course of its 1995 report, Price Waterhouse emphasised the importance of developing and strengthening a professional management ethos in the Defence Forces with a greater focus on the efficient and effective use of resources. In this context, the consultants highlighted the unusually cumbersome arrangements at headquarters where three nominally independent office holders report separately to the Minister. When this matter came before the then Government, a more conventional and centralised approach was endorsed with a single officer, the Chief of Staff, empowered to act as a chief executive. This approach has been adopted in the present Bill.
I commend the Bill to the House.