Mr. Neil Richardson:

The main issue is not that the budget is not there for us to use every year. It is. The problem is that our members are not being facilitated to use the paid training and to use that budget. The Department committed to increasing a control measure ceiling that would make it easier for Reserve Defence Force members to access a slightly larger number of paid training days per year. At the moment there is a control measure at 28 days. When a person hits 28 days he or she has to apply for more, and they have to be pre-approved by the Department. It committed, around a year and a half ago, to increasing that number to 42. It is still a control measure, but would provide a little bit more paid training for the Reserve per year. As far as we are aware that has still not been implemented, so the Reserve will still hit that ceiling. We would argue that this is a minor change that would have a drastically positive effect on the ability of our members to attend paid training and to be utilised. It has not been done yet.