Women of Honour to press their case with the Taoiseach after Coveney row
WOMEN who claim they were harassed and sexually assaulted while serving in the Defence Forces will meet with Taoiseach Micheál Martin tomorrow after walking out of a meeting with Defence Minister Simon Coveney earlier this week.
The Women of Honour group will demand that victims of sex crimes should be allowed to report to gardaí instead of having their allegations investigated by the Military Police. They will tell the Taoiseach at a hastily arranged meeting that ‘95%’ of sex assault complaints within the Defence Forces are first reviewed by the alleged perpetrators. They will also claim that those harassed, bullied and sexually assaulted are then forced to ‘buy their way out’ of the Forces.
The group walked out of a meeting with Mr Coveney this week after he refused to sanction a Commission of Inquiry into sexual harassment, bullying and rape in the Defence Forces.
Instead, the minister announced an independent review team to look at ‘dignity and equality issues’ within the Forces. Crucially, the judgeled review team will not be able to investigate specific allegations of sexual
‘People are being bullied after they complain’
harassment and assault which were first raised in the radio documentary Women Of Honour by RTÉ journalist Katie Hannon.
The group will urge the
Taoiseach at the meeting tomorrow to overturn Mr Coveney’s decision against approving a statutory inquiry.
Karina Molloy of Women of Honour said: ‘The Taoiseach has agreed to meet us and we hope that he’ll listen to us and our concerns and realise that this review has to go that step further.
‘Unfortunately rape, bullying and harassment is still ongoing… and there are court cases pending for bullying and harassment and serious sexual assaults that the minister is aware of because it landed on his desk.
‘The investigation system needs to be radically changed and complaints must be taken out of the chain of command because 95% of the time you have to sit in front of your superior and they are the alleged perpetrator. I have highlighted that three times with the Defence Minister with great detail and pain.
‘We want rape and serious sexual assaults not to be dealt with at all by the Military Police because they are not trained. What we want is that members of the Defence Forces can go directly to the guards.’
She added: ‘It’s barbaric that people have to buy themselves out after being abused and harassed. It’s absolutely barbaric. I know of one case where an officer was raped and they had the audacity to ask or demand that she pay her four years’ college fees back.
‘What we’ve always wanted is an inquiry with statutory powers to compel documents and witnesses to get to the crux of the matter as to how and why the investigations are failing. What’s happening is that people are being bullied after they complain and they are being coerced into withdrawing their complaints,’ she said.
The three-member independent review team announced by Mr Coveney will be led by retired Judge Bronagh O’Hanlon. She will be joined by consultant Jane Williams and senior counsel Mark Connaughton. But the Women of Honour group say there is a potential conflict of interest because Jane Williams is a member of the Defence Forces Commission that has been evaluating Ireland’s military.
Meanwhile, even though current and former female members of the Defence Forces will be able to recall their experiences, the new review group will not be able to investigate their allegations.
Instead the inquiry team can only ‘determine if a further body of work is required in relation to specific allegations’. The Defence Forces said last night that it supports the independent review announced by Mr Coveney.
In a statement to the Irish Mail on Sunday, a Defence Forces spokesman said: ‘Óglaigh na hÉireann welcomes and fully supports the announcement that an independent review will be immediately established to examine issues relating to workplace harassment, sexual harassment, bullying and discrimination in the Defence Forces. Óglaigh na hÉireann will give its unequivocal support and co-operation to this review.’