An Cosantóir

An Cosantóir July / August 2023 www.military.ie/magazine 8 | INTERVIEW WITH BRIG GEN ROSSA MULCAHY, ASSISTANT CHIEF OF STAFF (ACOS) BY COMDT GEMMA FAGAN The Women of Honour documentary which aired in September 2021 revealed lived experiences of bullying, misogyny, violence and inappropriate behaviour within the Defence Forces. What was your reaction when you saw the documentary first? I was initially shocked and it was difficult to read and hear these experiences being played out in the media. I suppose none of us can say we were surprised because we did have these issues highlighted in the early 2000's with Tom Clonan's research and then during the Independent Monitoring Group (IMG) process. However, by 2021 it was felt that we had turned a corner and we were getting positive feedback both from the previous IMG reports and our own statistics that this type of behaviour was on the decline. Following the documentary, the Defence Forces set up the Organisational Culture Standing Committee (OCSC), which you chair. Can you tell us what you were tasked with doing? Following the documentar y, the Chief of Staff made it ver y clear that these types of behaviours are not tolerated in our organisation. He immediately set about addressing the problem by establishing the Immediate Action Group (IAG). One of the actions of the IAG was to brief all members of the Defence Forces on what constituted appropriate and inappropriate behaviour. Another initiative that resulted from the work of the IAG was establishing the Raise a Concern phone line. The OCSC was subsequently established to build on the actions of the IAG as a longer term approach to drive cultural change in our organisation. It was established in November 2021 and I was appointed as its Chair. The terms of reference for the OCSC requires us to look at any thing that we can do to enhance the culture and improve behaviours across the organisation. To achieve that requires a really open and honest discussion with representatives from all corners of our organisation. For this reason, the committee comprises of reps from the three ser vices – Army, Naval Ser vice and Air Corps and across all ranks, from private rank up to general. There are specialist reps on the committee as well; such as Medical, HR, Training, Legal PR, GENAD and PSS with meetings held monthly since December 2021. We also established committees in each ser vice and formation to support the work that we're doing at DFHQ level. This provides a coordinated and cohesive approach to drive cultural change down through the organisation to all units. Rather than wait for the IRG (Independent Review Group) report to come out, the OCSC, conducted a variety of actions while the IRG were doing their work. Could you tell us what the OCSC has been doing since it was convened? The first thing we had to do was send out a clear message across the organisation that the health and safety of our personnel is our priority and that our workplace is one where dignity and respect are upmost in ever yone's minds. We built a whole campaign around the "It Stops Now " tagline which not only encouraged people to change behaviours, but also provided information on where help could be accessed for people who did experience either inappropriate behaviour, bullying or sexual harassment. We created a set of videos and posters around the message of

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