The order deprived those affected of pension entitlements and unemployment benefits accrued prior to their desertion, and prohibited them from employment in the public sector for a period of seven years.
[2] While some deserters had been court-martialled by the time the order was issued, most were abroad: some still on active service, others demobilised but afraid to return.
The order only applied to members of the Army Reserve or who had enlisted for the duration of the Emergency; pre-war soldiers who deserted remained liable to court-martial.
[6][7] Matthew O'Reilly argued the order's penalties were in fact more lenient than those to which deserters would otherwise have been subject under military law.
[6] The Exchange Telegraph report on the motion was published in many foreign newspapers, causing Joseph Walshe to complain that it gave "a mere routine measure of Army administration the character of an act of political vengeance".