Members of the Women of Honour group, from left, Karina Molloy, Honor Murphy, Diane Byrne, and Yvonne O'Rourke, on their way to meet Tánaiste Mihceál Martin in Government Buildings on Monday. Picture: Leon Farrell/RollingNews.ie
The Women of Honour group seeking a statutory inquiry into sexual abuse in the Defence Forces has described a meeting with Tánaiste and Defence Minister Micheál Martin as "constructive".
Spokesperson Karina Molloy said she received an assurance from Mr Martin that he would "adhere" to a recommendation to hold such an inquiry if it was backed by his fellow ministers in Cabinet.
She said: “Our ultimate aim is to get a statutory inquiry and I did ask him about that.
“He stated that if the independent review group recommends a statutory inquiry, he said he would adhere to it — if the Cabinet agrees to all the recommendations.”
Ms Molloy, who was sexually assaulted twice in her 31-year career in the Defence Forces, said the meeting was “constructive”.
“He seemed amenable to working with us in the future,” she told RTÉ radio’s Drive Time.
“We didn’t get to read the review but he said he would try and get all the recommendations implemented
“I feel we did benefit from the meeting, and he was very open for us to go back and discuss things.”
A spokesperson for Mr Martin also described the meeting as "constructive".
"He now intends to bring the report of the independent review group to Government for consideration," said the spokesperson.
The Women of Honour were among the serving and ex-serving women who raised allegations of sexism, bullying, sexual assault, and rape in the Defence Forces and who featured in an RTÉ documentary in 2021.
Ms Molloy said the group is actively looking for a statutory inquiry because it would at least have compellability and there would be “actionable accountability”.
Ms Molloy said it was also very important to “get victims' stories out there”.
In the absence of a statutory inquiry, Ms Molloy said Mr Martin indicated to the group that he understands that the internal Defence Forces complaints procedure “is severely failing members”.
The problem for this is the so-called chain of command rules that apply to allegations of bullying or harassment.
Victims can often end up going to their superior officer to complaint about bullying when in fact that same officer can often be the actual instigator of the abuse in the first place.
“I had to sit down with the person who was harassing me to complain about what was happening," said Ms Molloy.
“If I went over their head, I was told I had broken the chain of command."
Ms Molloy said Mr Martin has met serving members who are not happy with the speed of change in the Defence Forces, some 18 months after RTE’s October 2021 investigation into abuse in the Defence Forces.
“The Department of Defence and the Defence Forces can still implement changes,” said Ms Molloy.
“The complaints process needs to be overhauled so the victim will not be re-victimised."
Neither PDFORRA nor RACO, which represent Defence Forces personnel and officers, were given a copy of the report. They declined to comment until it is made public.