Commission on the Defence Forces Public Consultation Response Template 1. Capabilities – In this regard, you may wish to consider future integrated capability development and the planning and delivery requirements to support a joint force approach in terms of new equipment, professional military education and training, maintenance and development of infrastructure, developments in military doctrine, and transformative concepts, including specialist capabilities, that prepare and support the Defence Forces for future operations. I feel some of the equipment used by the defence forces is out dated. The body armour being used is not befitting of a modern day soldier, it gives a lack of mobility due to it's bulky nature and prevents the soldier from getting his/her rifle into a suitable firing position(into the shoulder). I would recommend the plate carriers that are being used by many other nations such as the UK, these are more suitable as they offer the required mobility and it is easier to fire the weapon. These plate carriers are also being used by our very own ARW. Also the helmets on issue while they are good they get extremely uncomfortable when you have your hearing protection on underneath, so again I would recommend the helmets being used by our very own ARW. In terms of military training and education I feel career courses such as the Potential NCO course such be broken down into modules. This is a 24 week course and as things stand if you are forced off the course for any reason, such as an injury, you have to start the course from scratch. In my opinion if the course was broken into three 8 week modules we would see an increase of soldiers looking to do the course and also for example it would make more sense for people that are forced off the course after 17 or 18 weeks to be able to come back where they left off. 2. Structures – In this regard, you may wish to consider the most effective high-level Command and Control (C2) structures within the Defence Forces to ensure an agile and balanced approach that can function across all domains at home and overseas. Additionally, you may wish to address appropriate future force structures for the Army (including its brigade structure), the Air Corps, and the Naval Service, individually as component services and collectively as part of an integrated joint force approach. Furthermore, you may wish to address the changing nature of reservists, which presents an opportunity for the Reserve Defence Force to further integrate and support the Permanent Defence Force through the provision of enhanced collective and specialist capability across all domains. In regards to the brigade structure, I feel the current 2 brigade structure does not work. At the moment we have troops from Finner Camp, Aiken Barracks, Custume Barracks travelling to Dublin to perform duties. In the old 3 brigade structure this did not happen. The troops from Finner do duties for a full week at a time in Dublin which just does not make sense. I think it’s well known that the majority of serving soldiers would like to see the return of the 4th Western Brigade with it’s HQ in Custume Barracks Athlone. This would also mean the possibility of reopening barracks in towns such as Longford and mullingar, in my opinion the reopening of some of these barracks would also help with the recruitment and retention issues in the DF as many people would be able to serve in their home towns or at least closer to their home towns. If anything comes out of this commission the restoration of the 4th Western Brigade is the one thing that I personally would like to see 3. Staffing – In this regard you may wish to consider the HR policies that support the requirement for an agile and adaptive modern military force. You may wish to consider issues such as recruitment and retention, organisational culture and values, gender and diversity, career progression, and industrial relations machinery. Recruitment is not the problem in the DF at the moment, retention is a much bigger issue and the biggest cause of soldiers leaving is pay and conditions. Duty pay should definitely be looked at as it’s definitely not acceptable. As I said before I feel the restoration of the western brigade and the reopening of old barracks would help with recruitment and retention. 4. Any other comments you may wish to make in relation to the Defence Forces having regard to the Commission’s Terms of Reference .