The Minister for Defence and Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr. Simon Coveney T.D., has today, (9th February 2022), welcomed the publication of the report of the Commission on the Defence Forces.
The Minister said: “This report proposes significant changes for the Defence Forces and Defence provision in Ireland. The report poses serious questions that we as a society must carefully consider. This includes the type of defence capabilities that we should retain and the level of resourcing that we are willing to commit to equip and train our Defence Forces for the roles that we require them to undertake. I hope that this report will foster real debate about the defence that we need as a modern European country.”
LINK TO FULL PRESS RELEASE HERE
Of key interest to the Veterans’ Associations is confirmation that the Report carries a specific recommendation that an Office of Veteran Affairs should be established.
This issue has been a long-standing proposal of ARCO and is articulated in the Combined Veterans’ Associations (ARCO, ONE, IUNVA) Strategy Submission of 2018. It has been consistently raised by ARCO at our meetings with Department of Defence officials and with the Minister for Defence and Foreign Affairs as recently as our meeting with him on 24th November 2021.
