Has anyone here had any experience working with the Irish Army, or any of their Defence Forces for that matter? And does anyone know if they run exchanges with the British Army?

Had a brief brush with them.

Involved a quick look at a Green and White card and a quick turn round. Not too far over honest..

Soldiers from the Irish Army have attended courses at Warminster and Brecon over the years so there's bound to be some on here who have been on courses with them. No exchange postings that I know of.

Currently working with Irish Army detachment here. Very good, very professional and dedicated.

About the only course of major note the Irish offer to foreigners are at the UN School in the Curragh. That said, there are some other exchanges open, but there aren't many of them.

NTM

Dunno about exchanges, but what I can tell you is that the ex-Mrs Sauce's Dad was in the Irish Army on UN duty in Lebanon. Nearly got his arrse shot off on numerous occasions. As previously stated, well though-of, well organised.

True story, back in the 70s the Rev Paisley was doing his biz in a church south of the border. The Irish Army deployed to protect his route. All going well when OC sees soldier with rifle to shoulder and aiming at said cleric. On enquiring of soldier as to what he was doing got reply "Well sor, I want to be able to tell me old mother in Kerry that I had the Reverend Paisley in me sights". Story from OC at party with friend from IA doing long cse in UK.

It seems as if our (Irish) chaps might be finally moving into the mainstream of military perception a bit more with the current Chadian deployment.

While it is unfortunate that we are strained to operate a Bn minus out there it still makes us the second biggest contributor after Les Grenuoilles and I suspect if Kosovo hadn't become operation hot potato again additional resources might have been on the way.
It remains to be seen if their will be any significant troubles for Eufor in Chad or if they will encounter the same sort of (Forgive me guardians of PC) "OH no White men, run away!" reaction that seems to have characterised the last major deployment in Liberia.

Oh well.

Worked very closely with them on one tour.

Good lads. The Irish martial spirit is clearly still there. Better disciplined than our people, but current military culture is a bit more "peacekeeping-force for good" than ours.

Officers a bit older on average than ours but a real sense of Regimental Family about their units.

Well, time for a slightly alternative viewpoint...

Hard times? So let's scrap the Army . . .

The time for prudent housekeeping and economic caution has passed. What we need now is daring, reforming initiatives.

Let's start by scrapping the Army. Maintaining one is a cast-off concept from British Empire days and has no place in a modern republic.

Besides, it costs us €1bn to run the entire Defence Forces. Since we have no desire to invade Zimbabwe, or indeed any other country, they're an extravagance. I cringe when I see guards of honour lining up when new ambassadors present their credentials. A pot of tea and fruit scone is welcome enough at the Aras.

No army means no peace-keeping missions to Chad and other countries, but Ireland shouldn't be sending military abroad anyway. I don't doubt the soldiers' efforts, but if we must contribute, let's despatch doctors and nurses.

With the soldiers decommissioned we can sell off their barracks, starting with the Curragh -- even in a declining property market that will generate funds.

The Air Corps can go, too, but we'll have to keep the Naval Service. An island nation must protect its waters -- from predatory fishermen, among others.

How about introducing a congestion charge along the London model? It works -- and it's a revenue earner.

Cancel decentralisation. It was a costly mistake but let's not throw good money after bad.

We can't afford the Metro; instead we should set up a fleet of buses to run services to Dublin Airport from all corners through the Port Tunnel. CIE must not be involved -- private operators are the key.

Review Irish embassies and ambassadors' residences worldwide. Mansions are an unjustifiable luxury; we can house them in smart apartments and rent hotel rooms for official entertaining.

Start metering water. Allocate an adequate quantity to every household and charge for surplus use. If nothing else, it will teach us to be less wasteful.

Hand over holiday homes which benefit from tax relief to people on social housing lists. Councils pay rent to the owners, those on waiting lists get a home -- everybody wins.

Scrap all tribunals. They have done the State some service but the costs are out of control. Allow tribunals currently running two months to conclude hearings, and a further four months to compile final reports. Late dossiers will result in lawyers' fees being docked.

High time to pull the plug on the Seanad. Those well-intentioned windbags can join gentlemen's clubs and pontificate there at their own expense.

Halve the number of TDs. With 166 deputies, we have more than six per county. Any more and each family would have their own deputy (just as some families seem to have their own seat).

We can manage with three TDs per county on average -- assign an extra one to the larger urban areas and subtract one from thinly populated counties. That would leave 78 TDs, just under 50pc of current numbers.

We're awash with junior ministries. I say we keep a half-dozen maximum for bigger departments and apply a slash and burn policy to the remaining 14 ministers of state and all their trappings.

Now with the Army gone, we no longer need the Department of Defence so that's an instant cost-saving.

Furthermore, we can amalgamate several other departments: Agriculture can bunk up with Environment, and let's lob in Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs with Arts, Sport and Tourism. Three fewer departments add up to hefty savings on civil servants.

Ministerial cars and chauffeurs are ripe for reform. Mercedes are ostentatious -- a fuel-efficient saloon is more than sufficient. And send those garda drivers back on the beat. If John Gormley and Eamon Ryan can cycle themselves, the rest can drive themselves. I don't buy that line about ministers working in the back seat because reading in cars gives most people motion sickness.

The sheer numbers of Dail committees, quangos and government agencies would make your head spin. In a word: reduce.

Sell our 25pc stake in Aer Lingus to raise €170m. Holding on to one-quarter gives us no power, as we saw at Shannon when the London route was moved to Belfast.

Every surplus-making state-owned body should pay a dividend to the Exchequer. Bord Gais, the ESB and Bord na Mona, I'm talking about you.

Artists' affiliation Aosdana is gone. Nobody owes anybody a living. They can keep their club and paraphernalia if it matters to them, they just can't have taxpayers picking up the bill any longer.

No more high-handed gestures of misplaced generosity such as the €2m gift Bertie gave the Kennedy Library Foundation during his recent visit to the States. A piece of carved bog oak would be plenty.

The Army's final task before disbanding can be to pulverise the e-voting machines. There you go, Taoiseach, a few ideas for the Government to get its teeth into -- and not a consultancy bill in sight.

www.martinadevlin.com mdevlin@independent.ie

http://www.independent.ie/opinion/co...y-1425904.html