Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I fully concur with Deputy Seán Barrett's proposal and I am sure there will be unanimous agreement from the committee that we act according to it. We can assure our visitors of that. I ask them to respond to the last group of questions. They mentioned that persons in receipt of a social welfare payment come off it for the week or two they are training. By pure bad administration and lack of interest, they do not receive their payment for a week and there is a delay. The weekly cheques of the officials responsible for that maladministration are transferred electronically to their bank accounts. It is appalling that people on low incomes should be left in that situation in any week of the year, not just at Christmas. It is appalling that there is a delay in paying a person who comes off a low social welfare payment to engage in public service. It is not acceptable in any walk of life or at whatever level within the Department or the Defence Forces that it is allowed to happen. The officials responsible for others not receiving their weekly remuneration were paid. The Department told us in a briefing note that the allocation for paid training in 2016 was €2.15 million, of which only €1.568 million was drawn down, leaving a sum of €500,000. That gave us the impression that the funding allocated had not been drawn down. The Department also stated the delay in recruitment to the Reserve Defence Force might be attributable to the pause in recruitment caused by the emphasis on recruitment to the Permanent Defence Force, but that seems to be a very lame duck excuse. If there is an interest in recruiting, the necessary processes must be gone through, including security clearance. None of us would condone not following processes properly.

The report of the delegates is very disturbing. The Oireachtas does not want to see the Reserve Defence Force move into oblivion. We want to stand by and support it. We want numbers to grow again. It is very disheartening for members if they know that the people in their community do not attach the same high reputational status they had in the past. The least that can be done is restoring that well deserved and well earned reputation.