Irish Military Online is in no way affiliated with the Irish Defence Forces. It is in no way sponsored or endorsed by the Irish Defence Forces or the Irish Government. Opinions expressed by the authors and contributors of this site are not necessarily those of the Defence Forces. If this is your first visit, be sure to
check out the FAQ by clicking the
link above. You have to register
before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages,
select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.
Announcement
Collapse
No announcement yet.
Discussion thread for COS remarks to the Committee Nov 2018
By the by I recommend all should have a listen to the whole three hours. Put it on in the car or something. It does offer a unique perspective into top management's view of the deep problems we face.
Also by the by - what badge is DCOS Ops wearing on the left and right shoulders
Last edited by trellheim; 19 November 2018, 08:43.
By the by I recommend all should have a listen to the whole three hours. Put it on in the car or something. It does offer a unique perspective into top management's view of the deep problems we face.
Also by the by - what badge is DCOS Ops wearing on the left and right shoulders
Some of the politicians raised issues that have been identified as far back as 2000/1 but needed political effort and direction to change.
Some quotes from DF strategy statement 2001-2004 (Brendan Smith TD was MoD)
Internal Weaknesses
A series of Defence reviews has chronicled the weaknesses of the Defence Forces at length. Some ofthese weaknesses remain to be addressed. These and other weaknesses are broadly summarised below:
• The absence of clear lines of accountability, authority and responsibility. The Chief of Staff currently has 18% of the Defence Vote devolved to him, while expenditure on the Defence Forces is in excess of 90% of the vote
(Almost 20 years ago, it was identified that the CoS had a need to be accounting officer)
• Human Resources - Recruitment and retention difficulties; and the inability to transfer or retire personnel to meet organisational requirements
• Deployment and Organisation - operational units too widely dispersed
(Still too dispersed as political parties priorities is for votes rather than the needs of the state)
• Equipment & Infrastructure - the need to continue the considerable improvement in recent yearsto enable a credible defence capability and to meet the standards required of a force operating in a modern peace support environment
(While equipment acquisition programs have improved the general state of Defence Forces building infrastructure across the country is extremely poor and is having a direct negative impact on both health and safety, operational effectiveness and retention).
• Training - Insufficient dedicated collective conventional military training
(Still no centralised recruit training facilities)
External Threats
• The impact of an economic slowdown on the implementation of Defence Forces’ reform
• The requirement to devise a new Defence Forces’ Pension scheme and the uncertainty of its effect on future recruitment and retention
One of if not the biggest challenge to retention is the complete erosion of the DF pension scheme to the point where it now not financially viable for new entrants (post 2013) to live when they are still mandatorily forced to retire at a certain sage or time served.
Overall I think MM did a good job, he stayed professional, ,kept circulating back to the pay issue as a core issue and didn't give the Mick and Claire show any fodder. He came across as professional and someone who cares about his organization and the service members. He did a good job of hitting his talking points and staying in the circle of trust. One of my take aways was "look, if you give me the resources, we won't have a retention & operational problem" even though he never actually said the.
His face, towards the end of Daly's questions seemed like he was getting a bit annoyed with her, but then who wouldn't. Nice to see the uniformed leadership getting the message out. This needs to be a regular feature and not have them censored by DoD. Ultimately the CoS needs to the accounting officer.
Looking back many of the questions are better dealt with as standard DF PQ's . If you have the opportunity to question the COS would you not focus on COS taskings /train/equip/man
Looking back many of the questions are better dealt with as standard DF PQ's . If you have the opportunity to question the COS would you not focus on COS taskings /train/equip/man
Do witnesses have a chance to send written replies to all the questions?
Given that probably:
10% of the available time was spend on welcoming COS, praising the DF, etc
70% was individual/party political statements
We process personal data about users of our site, through the use of cookies and other technologies, to deliver our services, personalize advertising, and to analyze site activity. We may share certain information about our users with our advertising and analytics partners. For additional details, refer to our Privacy Policy.
By clicking "I AGREE" below, you agree to our Privacy Policy and our personal data processing and cookie practices as described therein. You also acknowledge that this forum may be hosted outside your country and you consent to the collection, storage, and processing of your data in the country where this forum is hosted.
Comment