 Chairman, Excellencies, Distinguished Guests, it's a great privilege to be asked to talk to you here today. I understand I'll talk for about 25 minutes and I'll take questions. My principal teams will be complexity, innovation, diversity and leadership, and I'd like to cover them in the following manner. I want to set the context for defence as my approach, I'm a new role of Chief of Staff and then take a quick review over some of our major missions that are currently being undertaken by Oakley-Nahirn. I want to dwell on the concept of civil society for a moment and then talk about innovation. I'll develop the team of external and internal diversity, comment on leadership and then conclude. As Chief of Staff, my role is to work with the Secretary General under the leadership of the Minister for Defence and with support from the General Staff to continue the transformation of the Irish Defence Forces into a fit for purpose organisation with the appropriate capabilities for the challenges that we face. Oakley-Nahirn is a key part of Ireland's security architecture and when all is said and done it's the bedrock which underpins our sovereignty and sovereign rights. It provides a framework for a civil society. Few people realise that Ireland has sovereign rights over jurisdiction which is almost three times the size of Germany, 93% of which is under water, almost a million square kilometres. Potentially billions and possibly trillions of euros of yet to be found hydrocarbon resources are in this area and it's one of the richest food producing ecosystems and renewable energy environments on the planet. We also have statistically some of the most hostile seas in the world with the largest wave ever measured by scientific instrument measured off the coast of Mayo in 2002 at 30 metres. Our sea lines of communications are the lifeline of our economy which support 99% of our trade by volume and 90% by value. Our airspace is the centre of gravity of most air travel between Europe and North America with 90% of North Atlantic air traffic transiting through airspace under Irish control. Sovereignty and sovereign rights which are not upheld are more imaginary than real and that's why 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, soldiers, sailors and aircrew from Oglink Nahir and secure vital installations, delivers specialist and other services and patrol our jurisdiction while simultaneously being ready to provide a defence element of our national security architecture. All over the world we see challenges to the institutions of civil society and these challenges are characterised by an extraordinary complexity. Around us in Europe we see the instability in Ukraine, in the Middle East and North Africa we see the impact of perverse networks characterised by for example ISIS stretching from Iraq through Syria to the Sahel while criminal and drug cartels operate from South America across to West Africa and up into Europe and these challenges seek to undermine the institutions of a civil society prioritising power, religious fundamentalism and criminality. No arrow, diplomatic, economic, military, information or technological should be spared in pursuit of the strategic end state of the institutions of a civil society. Civil society is a human right of every man, woman and child where people are free, where the institutions of state function and where the vulnerable are protected. Like civil society freedom is not free and that's why we have almost 500 men and women of our defence forces in 15 missions in 16 countries and on one sea and they have a focus on facilitating the safe and secure environment that underpins civil society. These deployments are in our national interests and they help define us as a civilised society. Irish troops have maintained a presence in the Middle East for over 37 years. In uniform we are currently deployed with the finish and our strength is expected to move from about 181 at the moment up to about 330 later next year. I'll visit there in this weekend. The situation is calm but volatile and as has been reported in the media many has fellow fighters deployed from our area and the unifilary in general in as pro-government fighters in Syria. In UNDOF along the area of separation between Syria and Israel the situation is tenser. I visited there three weeks ago. I witnessed anti-government armed elements in the south of the area of separation while in the north of the area of separation the pro-government forces are supported by the likes of his fellow forces from Lebanon which I've already mentioned. And buffering the two areas was a disputed region which I could see some children playing in and what appeared to be individuals harvesting mines. It seemed tranquil. Around that evening to the east of the area under control by the Irish there was heavy artillery and heavy machine gun fire and engagement between government and anti-government forces. In the Mediterranean with nearly 60 personnel and the Elie Samuel Beckett and this has been an extraordinary busy mission with almost seven and a half thousand people recovered so far. We used the term rescued people because that's what they are. We don't distinguish between refugees and migrants although many clearly are refugees. There are many other missions where we have personnel deployed. What is clear is that in the Middle East and North Africa the situation is extremely complex and volatile and the dependent where you are you will find yourself somewhere in a continuum between war at one end and civil society at the other end. The strength of Oakley Cnaheron comes from our personnel whose welfare is pivotal. It is my role as chief of staff to contribute to the development of our men and women and to instill the ethos and values to define our institution. Cloutford said there can be no other way but to subordinate the military to the political. It's a fundamental norm of democracy and that's why the white paper process was so important. Cloutford also through the amazing trilogy codified the significance of the relationship between government, the military and the citizen. But the publication of the white paper in August this year has cast light on the answers to two questions. What does government want and what does the citizen want of its defence organisation? Some of the highlights of the white paper and defence include a force structure of around 9,500, a commitment to ongoing capability development for the three services, greater enterprise engagement, institutionalising of a greater innovation, a defence contribution to employment support, a new veterans policy and the development of an institute for peace support and leadership. And there are many others. In the defence forces our core business is the provision of defence and security services and this goes to the heart of our deployment and our development as warriors. But when I horizons can look at the complexity that surrounds us in addition to the terrorism and criminality that I've mentioned, I see challenging vectors such as population increase, declining resources, climate change, increasing urbanisation, growing mass migration. I see positive vectors like technological advances, enhanced use of automation and robotics and perhaps the most tangible of all is the explosion of data. All of these considerations are shaping how we must prepare for the future and one consideration that I'm absolutely convinced about is the need to innovate and I'd like to dwell on that for a moment. By innovation I don't mean just being creative and implementing good ideas. I mean a discipline that must be managed. I remember once championing the importance of innovation and somebody responded saying but we've always been innovating and you know he was right. But when I reflected on this, what we had been doing was closed innovation. We were innovating from inside the closed walls of our garden in terms of defence forces. What we are now driving is open innovation, lead user innovation, innovation using open source data and with organisations and institutions outside the defence forces. A couple of years ago various estimates suggested that there were about four zettabytes of data in the world. A zettabyte is 10 to the power of 21 bytes. It's an extraordinary amount of data which has been expanded in accordance with Moore's law as the processing power increases. In itself it presents us with a number of challenges not least of which is that we can be blinded like walking into a blizzard. Smothering us for example with all the emails, the texts, the social media that we deal with from day to day. And when you consider that by 2020 this will expand up to about 40 zettabytes of data the challenge is clear. Two points are clear to me. Firstly, if we have data in our organisation that we fail to harness properly, then we increase risk. Secondly, if our enemy, the terrorists, the criminals or other fully exploit data available to them, they become more formidable. So for us in the military there is no do nothing option. Indeed a white paper makes the point that as the rate of generation of information, knowledge and understanding grows it is ever more likely that the answers to complex problems will lie outside our organisational boundary. Looking at it from the mindset of an optimist presents huge opportunities. For data when codified becomes information, which in turn becomes knowledge leading to understanding and ultimately wisdom. Now and into the future there is a huge opportunity for data scientists developing algorithms using analytics. It is forecast you will be able to take a pill to prevent a disease that you have not got and you will be able to prevent a crime that has not yet occurred. And I believe we are already seeing that in some aspects of our defence forces in particular use of fisheries data. Within the defence forces we are developing better platforms to exploit information and knowledge. We are encouraging greater access of open source data which is providing us with some vital information. I have been trying to promote an understanding that we must see power to gain power. And what I mean is that we must accept that in the world of complexity we are increasingly interdependent. It is the same way open source data is providing us with valuable information. Open source knowledge may provide us with a critical piece of the jigsaw to that wicked problem that is challenging us. One good way to build a platform for knowledge exchange is through the creation of innovation networks. Where like-minded organisations encourage institutional engagement with the aim of greater collaboration. In my experience diverse organisations such as higher education institutes, state bodies, enterprise, including both small and medium enterprises and foreign direct investment. Collaborating together with principles such as trustworthiness, reciprocity, collaboration and communications. They can do remarkable things. The success of the National Maritime College and UNC were burned out of such collaborative efforts. And these platforms provide a broader context. And in my experience whoever has the broadest context has the most complete picture. Such collaborative arrangements, driving innovation networks, can facilitate lead user driven solutions to lead user identified problems. For instance a technical or process problem in the defence forces being addressed by the might of the research institutes such as Tindall can solve a challenging problem for us. And this potentially creates a new value creating opportunity if the solution has a wider market application. This could lead to a spin out, a spin in, a new product line. It also enhances potentially defence force capability. A critical consideration arises if there's a likelihood of a wealth generating outcome from the arrangement. In such circumstances my experience it has necessarily shaped the innovation network in what we can call an innovation partnership. And this must be done before the point of wealth or intellectual property is reached. Trying to do it after the opportunity materialises much more challenging. An innovation partnership requires codification of the relationship in the form of an MOU or an MOA, which sorts out the way the partners will work together. And the Defence Enterprise Committee, and I'm delighted to chairman and assistant secretary Kieran Murphy is here today, is our organisational platform for overseeing the efficacy of our engagement and is currently driving a wide range of collaborations with many HEIs and enterprise across the three services. Traditionally from a military perspective has been sufficient to focus primarily on the warrior type professional development of the military. And that was fine when operating in an environment of close innovation. Increasingly however there's a need now to encourage what we call a warrior diplomat perspective to facilitate innovation network cultures. My point here is that the key to development network is your interpersonal capacity to nurture and grow the relationship necessary to support the network and that's really a function of diplomatic competence. It requires an understanding of give and take and an emotional intelligence which is absent if absent can present a challenge. I'm fortunate in of the view that this diplomatic gene is one that features in the Irish DNA and it should come as no surprise especially when you look at the work of the Irish missionary network over the centuries and the Irish soldier over the last 50 years. In my experience the Irish on the international stage are extraordinary networkers. I've used the word trustworthiness for a reason and I often think we use trust like confetti at a wedding. By trustworthiness I mean that a partner in a network should be worthy of your trust and I can only come about as a result of working together. It's an inextricably linked with the principle of reciprocity. A colleague recently said to me, I don't mind somebody eating my lunch if they pay for my dinner and I don't know if it's dead down in here. There's another aspect of innovation and that is the matter of diversity. It's my experience that the more diverse the network, the more potentially disruptive will be the outcomes. Just as biodiversity is fundamental for sustainable development, diversity in the context of institutions is a key distinguishing feature of those that succeed in disruptive environments. In terms of diverse networks we should try and not just bring together the science, technology, engineering and maths, but the science, technology, engineering, arts and maths. And by arts I mean not just creativity but also economics, social sciences and political sciences. Bringing together diverse disciplines requires that we need to encourage an atmosphere where we talk and understand different cultures. The engineer must understand the social scientist who in turn must understand the data scientist. In short we need to study other people's disciplines. I've often seen that the solution to a complex problem very often is not technological or manpower, but governance or process. The diversity of the network is enhanced by marrying states with enterprise with civil society and with the research community. The rule is simple, the more diverse your network, the more disruptive could be the innovation. There's however a penalty, the more diverse the greater the challenge in terms of governance and keeping all actors on the same page. So I've suggested within the Defence Forces it's no longer good enough just to be a warrior, identifying that we need to be warrior diplomats, and there is also a need in order to understand other perspectives that there is greater scholarly reflection to broaden beyond our own area of core competence. So what we need in the future are warrior diplomat scholars. The Irish Maritime and Energy Resource Cluster which Brennan has mentioned, it's a platform and it's referenced in the White Paper and Defence. It's an integrated arrangement between the Defence, UCC and CIT and it has enabled some disruptive initiatives. The collaborative approach has helped a major policy focus on the development of Ringerskiddy and Cork and this has included the recent opening by Antishuk of the largest wave energy research facility in the world. More recently the Defence Minister for Defence opened up the Entrepreneur Ship which is an incubation, acceleration and mentoring institution. Among some of the technologies being developed is the idea of the use of kite sail technology as a vector for ship propulsion. Large scale kites can generate up to two megawatts of power and it could significantly reduce fuel bills and our carbon footprint. The project has been strongly supported by SEA and thanks to Brennan and your former role and Enterprise Ireland. But the game changer in the technology is when you start putting sensors into the kite such as a wireless node for a virtual private network over the horizon communications, synthetic aperture radar and so on. And as things currently stand, a naval platform can see roughly about 500 square nautical miles but with this type of technology it can see 5,000 square nautical miles if it's successful. And when you marry this with other technologies such as unmanned air vehicles, unmanned surface vehicles, you have a game changer, changing the ship from a tactical platform into a capital platform. Other utilities for this type of technology include power generation for remote settlements such as refugee camps, peace support operations as well as land-based surveillance reconnaissance. The success of the IMARC Innovation Network is quite remarkable. In a peer-reviewed study, it is stated that the cluster could generate in excess of 3,000 jobs within the coming decade, changing the military perspective from being a cost center to an investment center with the potential to assist in being a profit center. When we think about it, this is not a bad thing because state security is inextricably linked with economic security. Before I conclude, I'd like to briefly look at the internal dynamics of a complex organization like the military. I've made a case for enhancing the diversity of our external innovation network but the same goes for internal organization dynamics. Traditionally military organizations are stove piped, starting with the three services, Army, Navy and Air Corps, competing for scarce resources, and within each of the service you have stove pipes like for any example in the Army, different cores, infantry, artillery, cavalry, and in technical cores like engineers and ordnance and so on. What was apparent to me in the past is that whenever complex problems are being addressed, there could have been a tendency to draw expertise predominantly from one core or one service, and that's the way the decision was sorted. The resultant product was often the result of a group-trink without the opportunity for greater innovation by being greater cross-cutting. This is being addressed now by greater cross-cutting within the defense forces, and in particular it requires a drive towards greater jointness which is provided for in the White Paper and Defense. There are also other aspects to diversity and perhaps one of the biggest that the military faces is a matter of gender balance. We only have 6.1% females in our defense forces at present, so besides the challenge of diversity between the services, we also have a challenge in terms of predominantly male-dominated mindset reflecting on our challenging problems. Besides the fact that more women in defense forces makes us a better reflection of the society we serve, there is also the frightening reality that sexual-based violence is a feature of many of the conflicts in which we must engage. UN Security Council Resolution 1325 has set up goals in this regard. I'm convinced that the more women we have in the organisation, the greater will be the force-multiplying effect, and I'm determined to lead the defense forces in the right direction. There are other aspects of diversity to be addressed such as culture, generation, LGBT, and the White Paper and Defense tasks us with developing a diversity and inclusion strategy, which brings me back to our most important resource, which is our people. It's my duty to institutionalise a culture where our soldiers, sailors, and aircrew feel valued. We are committed to increasing diversity and inclusion and working together within the framework of our ethos and values of moral and physical courage, respect, integrity, loyalty and selflessness. It's vital that our personnel are encouraged to grow, that talent is managed and allowed to blossom. It's been a privilege to talk to you today. The White Paper and Defense has proven to be a very strong platform to set us forward in terms of the future, and I'd like to commend the leadership of our minister in this regard. As members of Oakley-Nahirn, we are professional warriors, but in a world of complexity, just being a warrior is not good enough. Our diplomacy skills can help broaden our network at home while making us better actors in the comprehensive environment abroad. Greater internal and external networking and diversity gives us a hedge to deal with complexity itself. Our diplomacy skills need to be nurtured through formal and informal personal development. We need to press beyond our comfort zone, learn the disciplines of others, become in scholars so that our innovation networks allow us to sense and explore those fleeting opportunities. Opportunities come to pass, not to pause. Innovation partnerships will help us seize and exploit those passing opportunities, create new knowledge, lead into intellectual property rights, employment, and potentially wealth. In being leaders in Oakley-Nahirn, we must be warriors, diplomats, and scholars. In being leaders, we should be bound by our principles of moral and physical courage, respect, integrity, loyalty, and selflessness. While we must be decisive, we must also possess a good judgment because we must deal with complexity. As leaders, we will need to draw, to have an outward poise, recognizing that we serve government and civil society. We must also be leaders with an inward look that recognizes that our strength comes from our personnel, who we must mentor, develop, and most of all, care for, and value. Allowing talent to blossom requires that we will be willing to take risks and accept some mistakes. Cloudsford said, in war, everything is simple, but even the simplest thing is difficult. For me, that translates into doing the right thing is generally not the problem. Doing it the right way is where the challenge can be, and that is where the mistakes can be made. I'm comforted, however, by the words of George Burner Shaw, who said, a life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable, but more valuable than a life doing nothing at all. Thank you very much.