Minister updates code of discipline for Defence Forces

The code of discipline governing the Defence Forces has been updated in a Bill introduced in the Dáil yesterday.

Minister of State for Defence Tom Kitt said recent developments in the military law of other common law jurisdictions, and in the ordinary criminal law, had been taken into account.

"Most important, it is necessary to ensure the Irish military disciplinary system is fully compliant with modern European and domestic human rights norms."

He said there would be new structures, scope, procedures, punishments and appeal processes governing both summary investigations and court martials.

An independent military prosecuting authority and an independent military judicial office would be established. A court martial administrator would be appointed, a summary court martial established and general and limited courts martials would be restructured, he said.

Introducing the Defence (Amendment) No 2 Bill, Mr Kitt said that apart from the establishment in 1983 of the Courts Martial Appeal Court, the introduction of a legal aid scheme, and some updating of punishments for breaches of military law, the system had remained largely unchanged since then.

"During the past 50 years, however, there have been several important developments which potentially impact on military law and disciplinary procedures."

Fine Gael spokesman on defence Billy Timmins said there was a need for regular reviews to keep military law in line with criminal law.

For instance, he said, there was no provision for young members of the Defence Forces to be sent to St Patrick's institution instead of a prison sentence. Young members of the Defence Forces were excluded from the benefits of the Children Act.

Mr Timmins said his party would soon launch its "back on track" policy, providing for more progressive rehabilitation for young offenders.

While welcoming the Bill, Labour spokesman Joe Costello criticised its "pretty turgid, impenetrable and unintelligible language". He claimed the Bill made a nonsense of a White Paper published three years ago.

"The Bill has been drafted in a manner calculated to make the applicable provisions of the law more obscure, harder to access, and, therefore, less coherent and intelligible.

"It is designed to deprive, whether intentionally or otherwise, the ordinary citizen of access to its content and meaning. Only members of the legal profession will be able to interpret it."

Mr Costello said good quality training and leadership were the hallmarks of a committed and professional force.

"A code of discipline is essential, but it must be fair. Disciplinary proceedings are essential, and they, too, must be fair. They should respect the individual as well as reflecting prevailing human rights norms. In this respect, the Bill is most welcome."

Sinn Féin spokesman Aengus Ó Snodaigh said the Bill was welcome, long overdue and similar to some of the other changes the Minister had introduced in response to problems in the Defence Forces.

He said the Bill created further positive modernisation of disciplinary proceedings.

"From a human rights perspective, good work has been done in drafting the Bill to ensure compliance, and I understand the Human Rights Commission is largely satisfied with the legislation."

Green Party spokesman John Gormley said legislation on whistleblowers in the Army was required to let people know what was going on.

"Since we have legislation to provide for such people in the Garda, we should put it in place for the Army. Otherwise we are saying the Army is different. We should see it in the same context."