The details of a tribunal of inquiry into abuses in the Defence Forces has been welcomed by retired army captain Diane Byrne. However, she expressed concern about the inquiry's terms of reference.
Ms Bryne, who is a spokesperson for the Women of Honour advocacy group, told RTÉ Radio's Morning Ireland: “It still comes across as a paper exercise.”
The complaints process was part of a bigger problem within the Defence Forces, she said, adding the tribunal would need to give a voice to those who had been afraid to speak out before now because of the impact a complaint could have on their career.
“We've always felt that a full public tribunal was the only mechanism that was going to expose any of the truth here.
“We welcome [Ms] Justice [Ann] Power and a full, comprehensive, transparent tribunal going forward, but we still have a way to go.
“We still have concerns in relation to the terms of reference, but we'll look at them in light of where we're at now and see what we can do,” Ms Byrne said.
She noted there appeared to be very few differences in the terms of reference in the new document that went before the Cabinet on Tuesday.
“There are a couple of their concessions, but we still have a lot of concerns in relation to the fact that it still kind of comes across as a paper exercise. It's heavily concentrated on the complaints process, and that has always been a concern of ours.
“There's been countless reviews into the complaints process that is in existence. We know it doesn't work, but more than that, the complaints process is a part of a much bigger problem.
“This is about people, it's about abuse of power, and it's about the people who've been shut down in that. So we're hoping that this tribunal will give them a voice, a chance to be heard and get a sense of accountability out of this. So this is very much the starting point.”
Ms Byrne said there were “substantial numbers of people” who had suffered abuse but had not engaged with the complaints process “because they didn’t have faith in it, or they felt their career would be destroyed at a minimum if they did use it”.
She added that she hoped the tribunal would provide an “avenue” for people to engage with the process, even if they had not filed an official complaint.
“That's a key focus. This needs to be an inclusive process to make sure it's effective, or it's only going to look at a very, very small part of a problem.”
A full public tribunal would be the only mechanism that would ensure that nobody had a chance to hide “and not open their books,” she said.
“That was the only thing that we felt that would really be able to get into the depths of what needs to be done here.
“In that sense, the tribunal is a fantastic opportunity to do what needs to be done here, and we're going to do everything that we can to make sure it's effective.”
