Mr. Eugene Gargan:

Moving on to Deputy Brady's questions, he asked about engagement with the commission. I am very happy to say we made a significant presentation to the Commission on the Defence Forces and it went very well. The international component of the commission, that is, those who are familiar with reservists in their own countries, very much took to heart what we had to propose. Part of that proposal was a restructuring of the Defence Forces in a way which would follow the population of the country, particularly the cohort from which we seek to recruit. We had the engagement formally. Also, the commission made a number of visits to military installations up until quite recently. I think it finished the final such visit only recently. We were quite happy that the commission met many reservists as well, not just us, so there was a very good and very meaningful engagement with the commission. I am very happy to mention that.

I will ask Mr. Richardson to talk about recruitment campaigns. Before I do, as for the point about stark figures, I refer to what might be called a conversion rate of those expressing an interest in joining the Army Reserve. I am an Army reservist. In my unit, and through the good offices of senior non-commissioned officers, NCOs, and the officers who look after recruitment in my unit, over recent years, when you amalgamate the figures, the conversion rate is 2.4%. In other words, of all the local people in my area who wish to join the Reserve, that is the percentage that actually gets through. Were it 24%, I would say to the committee that there was a failure in this centralised process for recruitment, but 2.4% is beyond belief. There is a serious problem with the centralised process there. This has to be one of the key messages. We will come back to it before I finish. Recruitment is essential. We need urgently to fix recruitment before we move on. The reason we urgently need to fix recruitment for the Army Reserve and the Naval Service Reserve is that we simply will not survive until such time as the recommendations, which we expect to be made by the commission, are executed.

As Mr. Richardson said, we are on a trajectory that is not great. The figure of 1,500, which one of the members referred to and is in the public domain, is an ageing figure and is only going in one direction. It is reducing and shrinking day by day, so urgent action is needed. Once the framework of the Reserve is gone, it will be practically impossible to construct something to replace it. An enormous opportunity will be lost at great cost to the State. I had to mention that at this point. I will hand over to Mr. Richardson on recruitment campaigns.