Senior Defence Forces officers have pushed back on creating dedicated women-only posts to boost diversity, warning it could create “disharmony” within the ranks.
Lieut Gen Rossa Mulcahy, the Defences Forces Chief of Staff, appeared before the External Oversight Body (EOB) on Thursday for its first public meeting to discuss internal complaints, recruitment and the need to bring more women into the organisation.
The EOB, which was established in response to complaints of widespread abuse and bullying within the military, pressed senior officers on the failure to increase the representation of women within the organisation, particularly at senior levels.
The Defence Forces had set a goal of reaching 35 per cent women by last year. The current number is just under 8 per cent.
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“At 8 per cent, by my reckoning, it would take 140 years to get to that 35 per cent target”, EOB member Josephine Feehily told Mulcahy.
She said Defence Forces leadership should examine an initiative by the Higher Education Authority create senior roles reserved for applications by women.
The Defence Forces senior diversity officer Col Jayne Lawlor said the senior leadership team had discussed this initiative and that there is a need to be “careful around it”.
“Does it get more women in? Yes. But in the Irish Defence Forces, the women in the organisation take very seriously the fact that we do the same training as the men. We have the very same standards, and we have equality across the board.
“I think that if we create appointments that are seen to be created just to get women to advance, I think it can create disharmony within the organisation.”
Asked about a lack of progress in appointing women to senior roles, Mulcahy said he cannot discriminate and create women-only appointments.
He said he has to stay within the law “otherwise the [secretary general] and Minister will be before the Workplace Relations Commission. That’s the reality.”
The general said the 35 per cent goal was a highly ambitious and difficult target and that no military in the world has achieved it.
“That’s not an excuse, that’s a fact. But that does not stop us. That’s still my target.”
The EOB recommended the Defence Forces set interim gender targets while progressing towards the more ambitious goal.
Regarding complaints of abuse, the EOB chair Patricia King said it is “highly unacceptable” that the number of complaints increased last year.
At the end of 2025, there were 53 live complaints, including sexual assaults. Thirteen of those complaints were made in the last quarter of the year.
The Chief of Staff said he was concerned by these numbers but that they also show victims feel more comfortable coming forward with complaints due to recent reforms.
He pointed to a recent attitudes survey which found more than 60 per cent of members now have trust in the complaints system.
“To be 100 per cent clear, there is no place in the Defence Forces for anyone who commits any act of sexual violence or sexual assault or any serious criminal offence. It is not compatible with service in Defence Forces,” the general said.
“That is my baseline, and I will not change from that.”
