The Defence Forces will not, it is understood, seek the return of a senior officer serving with a UN combat unit in Lebanon, who says he is unable to "engage in group conversation" and has received £30,000 compensation for hearing loss.
The officer, Lieut-Col Gerald Swan, is serving with the multinational Force Mobile Reserve (FMR), the front-line unit which provides combat support for the entire UNIFIL (United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon) area of operations should any of its other units come under attack. The FMR has been deployed in dangerous situations in the area many times in the past two decades.
As officer commanding (OC) of the FMR, Lieut-Col Swan could be deployed in action, despite his disability, although his duties would normally be to direct operations from his base outside the town of Qana in south Lebanon. Previous officers serving as OC in the FMR have been in action.
In December, Lieut-Col Swan succeeded in his claim for compensation for hearing loss and it is understood he received just under £30,000.
One of the conflicts of having a hearing loss while serving with an operational unit is that under health and safety regulations it is not permitted for someone with such a condition to be within 30 metres of a mortar or other heavy firearm being discharged.
Lieut-Col Swan's situation and that of another senior officer who had been acting OC of an infantry battalion in the Army and who has also been compensated for hearing loss, were discussed at a day-long meeting of the Defence Forces General Staff last Tuesday.
Lieut-Col Swan, it is understood, will be allowed to continue his tour of duty in the Lebanon. He is serving a six-month tour with the FMR and is due to complete his UN duty in just over a month. It is understood the other officer is being moved to a non-operational position in Army headquarters.
The situation of allowing officers to serve in operational positions where they could be expected to work in close proximity to weapons being fired has arisen because there has been no compulsion on serving soldiers to state whether or not they are claiming compensation, according to senior Defence Forces sources.
As a result of the concern over the two senior operational appointments the General Staff has sought a complete list of officers seeking compensation. It is understood this has been supplied only in the past two weeks to the Chief of Staff, Lieut-Gen Gerry McMahon.
From now on, it is understood, an officer's hearing loss claims will be taken into consideration when an application is made to any operational post.
Lieut-Col Swan wrote to The Irish Times last month defending the right of soldiers to claim compensation for hearing loss. He said he was not totally deaf but could not engage in group conversation "and have difficulty even in one-to-one conversation."
In his letter, published on December 9th last, he said soldiers' claims for compensation were being made "for damage to their hearing resulting from a failure by the State in its duty of care.
"I sympathise with the public concern at the scale of compensation being paid to members of the Defence Forces as a body. It is indeed a scandal that such payments are necessary. I would point out, however, that these payments are not for hearing loss per se but rather because, in the view of the courts, such loss was unnecessary and preventable."
It is understood that at the time of writing, Lieut-Col Swan had not received word of his compensation award.