PDForra general secretary Gerard Guinan said previous complaints about assaults, bullying and harassment were allegedly not dealt with satisfactorily by military management.
The association representing enlisted members of the Defence Forces has said it is preparing to lodge a number of complaints about assaults, bullying and harassment with the tribunal set up earlier this year to address grievances allegedly not dealt with properly by military management.
PDForra, which represents more than 6,000 enlisted members of the army, air corps and naval service, has confirmed to the Irish Examiner it is helping both serving and former members of the Defence Forces compile complaints, but as yet it has received none from any women.
PDForra general secretary Gerard Guinan said his association has not received any complaints to date about alleged sexual harassment either.
He said all the complaints his association has so far received are from serving and former members in relation to physical assaults, bullying and harassment, with the oldest case going back to 2012.
Mr Guinan said in the main these complaints were previously submitted to military management and were not dealt with to the satisfaction of those who had made them.
“Our association is seeking to help members and former members in any way we can, be that either through the gathering of documents that may be in the possession of the association, or through just the general assistance with the compilation of submissions for the tribunal,” he said.
Mr Guinan said his association was appreciative the tribunal was satisfied PDForra had a sufficiently direct interest for a grant of limited representation at the investigative stage of the tribunal’s work.
“To that end, we are assisting personnel to gather paperwork and make submissions at this stage. We would encourage members and former members to come forward and assist the tribunal in its onerous task,” he said.
Mr Guinan added the work was quite labour intensive at the moment and it was rushing to try and get all the submissions into the tribunal by the deadline of the end of next month.
The establishment of the Defence Forces tribunal was recommended by the Independent Review Group (IRG) and it was officially set up by Defence Minister Micheál Martin following resolutions passed in the Dáil and Seanad earlier this year.
The IRG recommended it be set up to identify if there were systemic failures in the Defence Forces’ complaints’ system, in order to ensure transparency and accountability.
It followed a number of serious allegations made by serving and in particular former members of the country’s military which not only included claims of bullying, harassment and sexual misconduct but physical torture and psychological harm.
The tribunal will be overseen by Ms Justice Ann Power.