The Taoiseach has said everyone was aware of issues with bullying and sexual harassment in the Defence Forces to some degree.

It comes after the Chief of Staff Seán Clancy he wasn't aware of the issues during his 40 years career in the organisation.

The Independent Review Group made shocking findings into the culture of harassment and bullying in the Defence Forces.

It included staff being verbally, physically and sexually abused, and spoke of a culture that barely tolerated women.

Interviewees spoke of drinks being spiked, female officers being told to put two locks on their doors and predatory behaviour by other staff members.

But yesterday Chief of Staff Seán Clancy said he wasn't aware of the behaviour during his 40-year career.

The Taoiseach says he has confidence in the Defence Forces Chief of Staff but says everyone was aware to some degree of allegations in the Defence Forces of bullying and harassment.

Yesterday Seán Clancy said he was unaware of cases during his career pic.twitter.com/0VdBcYiHrv

— Seán Defoe (@SeanDefoe) March 30, 2023

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has said everyone was to a degree.

“I do want to say that I have confidence in the Chief,” he said.

“He is somebody who I think can lead the change that is required in our Defence Forces but he is going to need a lot of help from others to do so.

“I don’t think the Defence forces can fix the problems on its own – I think that is very clear.

“Issues around bullying and harassment, some of a sexual nature, have been documented on a number of occasions now in the past 20 years so I think all of us were aware of it in that sense.”

The Chief of Staff said the true extent of things had only become clear to him in the past year.

The Dáil will hear statements on the report this afternoon.