The Women of Honour group has said it has held a "very frank" and "very constructive" meeting with the Garda Commissioner on the criminal investigation into allegations of sexual abuse within the Defence Forces.
Representatives of the group met with Drew Harris at Garda Headquarters in the Phoenix Park in Dublin.
Commissioner Harris announced the criminal investigation following the release of the independent review into gender-based violence, harassment and bullying in the Defence Forces.
Speaking after their meeting, retired army captain Diane Byrne said the purpose of the meeting from their perspective was "to get a good understanding of what's going on, what the proposal is and what their plans are".
She said the Women of Honour group "really didn't know where this was coming from, we obviously had major questions as to why this hadn't happened before and why it's happening now.
"So we had a very frank discussion and it was very constructive. We very much welcomed the meeting and the frankness of the conversation."
Ms Byrne, a spokesperson for WoH, said "we were in a position where we were given the opportunity to ask all the questions that we have. The answers weren't necessarily there but they have gone away and there's a lot of questions and a lot of information that we will be able to get answers to going forward.
"Really this was about getting to a stage where we can encourage people to come forward and to trust in this process and when we get those answers, hopefully we'll be in a position to do that."
Speaking to RTÉ News, the Women of Honour group said more people have made contact with them following the recent release of the review.
Diane Byrne said: "Absolutely, there's a lot of people making contact with us and we encourage people to keep doing that, if for no other reason than to understand that they're not alone in this.
"We have seen a huge increase in numbers coming forward and not just to ourselves because there are other groups, other victims groups and people just reaching out to people they know and having honest conversations that never happened before."
She added that "the numbers are increasing and we hope that this will develop into a community so that people understand that there is support for them there at this point".
Ms Byrne also said the group hopes to hold further talks on the matter with the Garda Commissioner.
"There's open engagement now, we'll be hoping to get information and keep engaging going forward, so it's movement."
