On 10 February, the Minister for Defence, Helen McEntee TD, published a new Strategic Framework for the Transformation of the Defence Forces and an Update to the Detailed Implementation Plan for the Commission on the Defence Forces. Both documents area available on the Department’s Website.
The Strategic Framework sets out the specific actions to be taken over the next 12 months under the following headings:
- recommendations of the Independent Review Group Report;
- the recommendations of the Commission on the Defence Forces;
- regeneration and growth of Ireland’s Naval Service and Air Corps, and ensuring parity of esteem across all services;
- increasing the number of personnel in our Defence Forces;
- enhancing the physical working environment and equipment of our personnel;
- data, reporting and digital transformation of the Defence Forces;
- legislative changes to underpin the transformation agenda;
- priority actions identified by the External Oversight Body of the Defence Forces (EOB);
- governance and reporting arrangements to oversee this transformation and bring transparency and accountability to the work;
- the means by which the impact of the transformation initiatives is measured; and
- the work in the area of defence policy which will occur in parallel with the cultural transformation of the Defence Forces.
The timescale for this Strategic Framework is 12 months. It is the intention of the Minister for Defence to publish a revised Strategic Framework for 2027 and beyond, at the conclusion of this Strategic Framework.
The Updated Detailed Implementation Plan for the Report of the Commission on the Defence Forces follows a similar format and style to the original Detailed Implementation Plan, published in 2023.
- It sets out the timelines for the delivery of the 130 recommendations. The Report of the CoDF highlighted five core areas that must be addressed, on foot of policy decisions in relation to level of ambition and budget. These five core areas are now captured as five Strategic Objectives, which are:
- Strategic HR and Cultural Change to be Delivered;
- New C2 and Joint Structures to be Established;
- Services to be Reformed and Restructured;
- Reserve Defence Force to be Revitalised; and
- Joint Capability Development to be Implemented.
The actions to be taken under each strategic objective are outlined, along with the timelines for so doing.