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

One of the important things to emphasise is the importance that is being attached to the trained reserve being in a single force structure. The implementation plan will achieve that. It may well arise out of that, that there will be circumstances in which members of the RDF will in the future be utilised when in the past they have not been. I deliberately touched on that both in my speech and in some of the responses to Deputy Ó Cuív before his rather hasty departure.

There are areas of activity in which the Civil Defence engages on occasions when there are emergencies. In circumstances where the appropriate training has been provided to members of the reserve and an emergency arises if assistance is required, in circumstances where there is not a cost to the State from members of the reserve providing assistance, that will open up opportunities. Those are issues for further reflection as we implement the process. I would be very interested in hearing the views of members of the reserve on the issue.

I mentioned earlier some issues raised by members of the reserve. Deputy Stanton will be familiar with the situation from his time in the reserve. There is a feeling that despite the training they are not adequately utilised. In examining the situation I would be very happy to hear the reflections of members of the reserve. They are contributing further to the process of change. They might well identify practical circumstances in which they believe the reserve should be engaged. In the past, comments of that nature were made. By the change we have effected and by focusing finance on training days, from a Government perspective the financial burden of the reserve being engaged in issues on which they have not been requested to engage in the past is lifted from the Government. I am sorry to put it in that basic way but it is clear that this did impact on the fact that the reserve was not used in the past. It might not have been articulated by my predecessors but it is the truth. Now the circumstances have changed and I would be interested, following the meeting with members of the reserve this afternoon, if this is an issue on which they reflect, to see what they have to say.