Mr. Martin Cooney:

I thank the Chairman and members of the joint committee for the invitation to give a presentation to them. I am joined by my colleagues Mr. Patrick Mulley, vice president of the Reserve Defence Force Representative Association, RDFRA, Mr. Gerard Kiely, president of RDFRA, Mr. Rob Gilbey, a member of the Army Reserve, Mr. Eoin Colgan, a member of the Naval Service Reserve, and Mr. Shane Morris, a member of the Naval Service Reserve.

The objective of our presentation today is to seek to change the mindset in respect of how the Reserve Defence Force, RDF, is utilised and to request that the joint committee commission an independent review and report on the RDF with a view to identifying the real value for money associated with a reserve force and how this can be utilised in the Irish defence capability framework.

I think it beneficial to give the committee a little information about the RDF. The RDF is the reserve component of Ireland’s Defence Forces. Its roles are the same as those assigned to the Permanent Defence Force. However, the RDF’s most important contribution is to support the Permanent Defence Force in its contingency defence roles and other crisis situations. Therefore, in peacetime, the main function of the RDF is to train and prepare for these contingency roles.

The RDF comprises the First Line Reserve, the Army Reserve and the Naval Service Reserve. The First Line Reserve comprises former members of the Permanent Defence Force who have a contractual obligation and commitment to the First Line Reserve. For the purposes of today’s presentation, we are concerned only with the Army Reserve and the Naval Service Reserve. These are made up of volunteers who undertake military activities in their spare time. These volunteers come from all walks of life within Ireland and they freely volunteer most of their reserve service. They do so in addition to work, study or family commitments and offer a wealth of civilian qualifications and experience that could be used by the State.

The current establishment of the RDF is 4,069 volunteers, comprising 3,869 personnel in the Army Reserve and 200 personnel in the Naval Service Reserve. However, the figure is slightly higher now as a result of numerous personnel serving without appointments resulting from the recent reorganisation of the RDF. The Reserve Defence Force Representative Association, RDFRA, is the representative body that represents the interests of members of the RDF within certain defined parameters.

The Minister for Defence has already addressed the committee this morning regarding the value for money, VFM, review of the RDF. The RDFRA believes there are major issues with the VFM review and objects to its conclusions and the consequences that have come about as a result. It is not our intention to address the VFM review in any detail today. It is too late to do so given that the Minister has already made his decisions based on its findings and the reorganisation of the RDF is already well under way. However, we would like to make some general comments on the VFM review before moving on. It is our opinion that the VFM review is flawed on a number of levels. It failed to make any qualitative evaluation of the input of the Permanent Defence Force into the RDF. It sets up biased comparisons in its case studies. It misinterprets evidence and includes no substantial analysis to support many of its claims. In addition, it completely ignores the operational capability, experience and outputs of the Naval Service Reserve.

It is unfortunate that there was no member of the RDFRA or the RDF on the steering committee and it appears that the VFM review has been prepared with a certain bias in its approach and findings. We find it disappointing that a true opportunity has been missed to conduct a critical review of the RDF with a view to identifying how this valuable resource can be effectively used for the benefit of the State.

The outcome of the VFM review and the latest reorganisation of the RDF run contrary to international trends, existing studies and reports on international comparators and previous studies on the RDF.