Coveney is accused of stonewalling Women of Honour
Campaign group still awaiting a response to letter outlining their concerns
‘There should be no hiding places’
DEFENCE Minister Simon Coveney has been accused of stonewalling the Women of Honour group, who have alleged harassment, abuse and discrimination in the Defence Forces.
Mr Coveney, who has responsibility for Foreign Affairs and Defence, has denied the claim. However, Fianna Fáil TD and former defence minister Willie O’Dea told the Irish Daily Mail that ‘defence issues have not had a voice at the Cabinet table since March 2011’.
Allegations of sexism, bullying, sexual assault and rape were raised by the Women of Honour in an RTÉ documentary last year.
Mr Coveney has established an Independent Review Group (IRG) to investigate sexual misconduct in the Defence Forces.
But the Women of Honour assert that this does not go far enough. In a letter to Taoiseach Micheál Martin, the group wrote that ‘to date, the Minister for Defence has stonewalled our position’.
It comes as Minister Coveney revealed that discharges from the Defence Forces for misconduct of a sexual nature or sexual assault are not on the list of the 26 reasons cited for discharge by the Defence Forces. He was responding to queries by Sinn Féin TD Patricia Ryan on dismissals from the Defence Forces between the years 2000 and 2020.
He said: ‘I am informed by the military authorities that discharge as a result of misconduct of a sexual nature is not specifically classified or recorded electronically.’ Minister Coveney also revealed: ‘An individual member of the Permanent Defence Force may be discharged for any one of the 26 reasons identified in DFR A10, with the relevant reason used in recording the reason for discharge.’
Mr Coveney did not make a comment on this.
The minister separately revealed: ‘In the past ten years, two members of the Defence Forces were courtmartialled for sexual offences. In both cases, the charges were proven and both individuals were discharged from the Defence Forces.’
A Women of Honour source noted of the current situation, where the Army polices itself: ‘There should be no hiding places. The military has throwbacks as the State had with canon law where it was used to block the State and victims.’
In a still-unanswered letter to the Taoiseach five weeks ago, the group warned that ‘regretfully we must indicate that the time period when the Minister for Defence was previously in that portfolio is a matter of serious concern to certain of our members’, adding that issues were not addressed. Mr Coveney was Minister for Defence for two years from 2014 following a Cabinet reshuffle. In their letter, the group claim that Mr Coveney’s solution to their grievances, the setting up of an Independent Review Group, has now lost the confidence of all participants.
‘In those circumstances, you [Mr Martin] indicated that if there were any difficulties in relation to the process or in relation to the scandal concerned, your “door would be open”,’ they wrote.
‘On the previous occasions when we met, we were alone as an organisation in the context of the views that we held, that the Independent Review Group process was fundamentally flawed.’
They have asked the Taoiseach to meet with them ‘within a limited time frame that is appropriate to your other Government obligations’, adding: ‘Yet, for the avoidance of any doubt, we cannot and will not sit on our hands on this matter as then we would be equally guilty of the conspiracy of silence that previously was condoned.’
They concluded: ‘We look forward to hearing from you in the spirit in which you indicated that your door would always be open.’
So far the group have not received an acknowledgement or response from the Taoiseach.
‘We will not sit on our hands’