Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Yes, in the wider public interest. Dealing with the wider public interest, what was identified in the context of the report was that a substantial sum of money was being spent on the reserve by way of the payment of gratuities to members who do not participate in training, and that clearly was a feature for the entire period that Deputy Ó Cuív was in office. We wanted to ensure in the public interest that those members of the reserve who were in receipt of public moneys participated in training and had the capacity to provide assistance to the PDF should it be required if an issue arose. Clearly, that was in the public interest.

The committee next had to identify the level and trend of training activity and the outputs associated with the RDF. In the context of outputs, an issue I mentioned earlier, we have, for example, the Civil Defence which, when there is an emergency of different descriptions, and usually climate related, on a volunteer basis provides substantial assistance, and does so at no cost to the State. The State has been for some time in the midst of a fiscal difficulty of which the Deputy will be familiar and one of the issues was what contribution the RDF can make, and in circumstances where, if its members are asked to undertake duties for which they have undertaken training, it results in a cost to the Exchequer. There are circumstances in which the Civil Defence is currently utilised in which the RDF could be utilised, either jointly or separately from the Civil Defence. There was clearly an issue - the report addresses it - as to circumstances in which, in a volunteer capacity, the RDF could be engaged as support for the PDF or in assistance to the civil power. It is clearly in the public interest that such matters be clarified and addressed and, if I could say so, it is in the interests of members of the RDF.

Since becoming Minister, I have spoken to many members of the RDF. One of their frustrations, which I understand and with which I identify, is that they participate in training but they feel they are not utilised and there are opportunities when they could have been utilised. In a time of austerity when the State must be careful with how it spends public money, where there is Civil Defence personnel trained to engage in something that it could do with equal efficiency to the RDF, even where the RDF has the training, the Civil Defence is engaged in practical terms because it does not result in expense to the State. That is unfair to members of the RDF, all of whom are volunteers who receive little money for participating individually in the RDF, who have a commitment and who would welcome the opportunity to make a contribution. It is in their interest and the public interest they be afforded the opportunity to do so.

The review committee next had to examine the extent to which the plan's objectives have been achieved. These plans, which were in place during the lifetime of the previous Government and which we inherited when we came into office, were clearly dysfunctional and not working. It was in the public interest and in the interest of members of the RDF that such be addressed.