Mr. James Scanlon:

I do not want to take too much credit for the speed at which the Naval Service's personnel were inducted. Personnel in the Permanent Defence Force, particularly Lieutenant Stephen Stack, put a lot of effort into making sure the process was streamlined and very quick. I would like to point to the one thing that caused all of our numbers to fall below Mr. Richardson's. It is the anomalous eyesight standard for the Naval Service Reserve, NSR, as mentioned in the opening statement. It results in the loss of about 45% of suitable applicants. If Mr. Richardson takes in 100 people who finish the process, he might get 90 of them. He can expect ten to go down on medical grounds. We would lose 45 on medical grounds, mostly due to the eyesight standard. It is not fit for purpose. There is a case to be made in favour of changing it, but it is moving very slowly through the bureaucratic process.