Women of Honour have expressed their disappointment after meeting the Taoiseach.
The brave women, representing female soldiers who suffered horrific sexual, physical and mental abuse while members of the Defence Forces, are looking for a statutory inquiry into their complaints.
The group believes there is a “toxic culture” in the Defence Forces that needs to be called out.
However they have been rebuffed by the Taoiseach, Micheal Martin, who has backed the position taken by Minister for Defence, Simon Coveney.
The Women of Honour last week walked out of a meeting with Mr Coveney after he told them he was rejecting their call for an inquiry, offering just a review instead.
And after another meeting with the Taoiseach on Monday morning, the group said they were “deflated” when he backed his minister.
However, they said Mr Martin was “courteous” and that they are hopeful the offer of an official inquiry might come about after the review is complete.
A spokeswoman for the group said: “We Women of Honour had an exchange of views and information with An Taoiseach this morning at Government Buildings.
“In the hour and a half long meeting Mr Martin listened to what we had to say and treated us courteously.
“We asked the Taoiseach to reconsider the Government position regarding the approved but flawed and entirely unfit for purpose review into the issues raised with regard to the Defence Forces.
“We also asked that the appropriate public statutory investigation be put in place with responsibility for that investigation being removed from the Department of Defence.
“Unfortunately the Taoiseach has advised that the review will go ahead as is.
“Whilst he is not ruling out a statutory inquiry it is unclear if or when any decision will be made on this and whether it is dependent on the outcome of the review.”
The Women said that they believe Mr Coveney has a conflict of interest in his position.
“It is our view that Minister Coveney is conflicted in this matter of investigating the Defence Forces and the Department of Defence.
“Mr Coveney has been Minister for Defence in six of the last nine years when many of the serious offences took place in the Forces.
“But he has never intervened until the RTE documentary.
“Also his party Fine Gael has held the Defence post since 2011 and we believe it is time for fresh thinking.”
The Women of Honour added: “We believe only a statutory inquiry will get to the heart of the matters involved and we explained to the Taoiseach that another review, however well-intentioned by Government, would not get to the heart of the toxic culture in the Defence Forces.
“If the issues that we have raised are not considered serious enough to merit a full statutory inquiry it is hard to understand what is.”
