Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for reading out the list of names. It seems extraordinary to me that this VFM is basically the Department and the Army looking at the Department and the Army. Steering committees, as I know from experience as a Minister, tend to be totally dominated by the system and get the answer the system wants.

Was the wider good to society in general of the training and discipline involved in being in the reserve defence force taken into account or was a purely utilitarian military view taken of it? Many of us who had the privilege of being in what was then the FCA benefited greatly on a personal level and society benefited from the training we got as members of that reserve. To judge by what the Minister has said here this morning that does not seem to be part of the review.

There are figures on the summary costs. The training cost for the PDF cadre in 2011 was €16 million. If the Reserve Defence Force were to be abolished this morning, how much of the €23 million spent in 2011 could have been saved in reality or would it be a fact that those Permanent Defence Force members would continue to be Permanent Defence Force members and that the Civil Service personnel would continue to be Civil Service personnel and their wages paid, and would the costs of the director of reserve personnel at the Defence Forces headquarters also have to be paid? If the Minister were to abolish the Reserve Defence Force what would be the net savings?