Ireland has a historic opportunity to set an example to other countries with the new position of Defence Forces Ombudsman, the first woman to take up the role said today.
Paulyn Marrinan Quinn is beginning the job of setting up the office of the ombudsman after her official appointment to the post by President Mary McAleese last week.
She was nominated by the Government for the role, which will see her as the ultimate point of appeal for complaints by members and former members of the forces against colleagues or civil servants in the Department of Defence.
The three-year position was created by the Ombudsman (Defence Forces) Act 2004 and will be brought fully into action in December.
Ms Marrinan Quinn, a senior counsel who was formerly Ombudsman for Insurance, said she was honoured to take up the new position.
"I think it's a historic and groundbreaking to have an office of ombudsman, and I'm particularly honoured to be the first person to occupy that role."
She said Australia and Canada were among the only countries in the common law jurisdiction who already had an ombudsman for the military, and the new post was an enormous opportunity for Ireland.
"There's a great opportunity to get it right - it's very well drafted legislation, a huge amount of work has gone into it.
"It provides great opportunity for Ireland to pave the way in this area, to set up standards of best practice," she said.
The Ombudsman's initial job would be to set up an office in Dublin and raise awareness of her role ahead of it coming fully online at the beginning of December, she said.
"The top priority is to set up and establish an office which will be accessible and effective."
The lawyer acknowledged there would be a number of challenges facing her as she took up the new post.
"There's a particular challenge in setting it up and making it effective.
"In the context of the military, it provides even more of a challenge, where the concept of an open and accessible review has to be married and aligned in the context of the defence forces where a strong chain of command is part of the structure.
"The first hurdle is to create an effective case management system married into existing redress systems," she said.
Ms Marrinan Quinn also said she wanted to raise awareness of the ombudsman and ensure people were confident it was an independent and impartial redress system.
"One of the hurdles to overcome is to build up confidence and trust in the office."
But the ombudsman said the creation of her office highlighted what was right with the defence forces, not what was wrong.
"It represents a touchstone and a safety net, it's a symbol of confidence in whatever institution it's in.
"What it does is indicate that management has a view of this as an important management tool."
The creation of an Ombudsman for the Defence Forces has also been welcomed by PDFORRA, the association for Defence Forces soldiers, sailors and airmen, which has called for an independent redress system for years.
Ms Marrinan Quinn paid tribute to the association's former general secretary John Lucey, who she said was an ardent campaigner for an ombudsman, but who died before he could see the concept come to fruition.
There have been high profile cases of bullying in the defence forces as recently as last month, when two soldiers were disciplined over an incident in which a private was shut in a locker and forced to eat food off the floor as a punishment.
Although Ms Marrinan Quinn acknowledged the Dail report in 2002 had highlighted a lot of instances of bullying in the army, she said processes implemented following the report appeared to have had led to a sharp reduction in cases.