Mr. Neil Richardson:

To answer the Deputy's question, training camps for the Reserve Defence Force, or previously, Fórsa Cosanta Áitiúil, FCA, units would have been arranged quite regularly, as he will be very familiar with from years past. What happened following the 2013 reorganisation of the Reserve Defence Force is that independent reserve units were stood down and post this date, all reservists have served as previously permanent-only units. To give an example, in Dublin, we would have the 7 Infantry Battalion based in Cathal Brugha Barracks. Headquarters, A and B companies and support companies will be permanent soldiers and C, D and E companies will be reservists. They are, therefore, all under the one flag, so to speak.

Unique reservist stand-alone training camps have sort of disappeared really since 2013. What now generally happens is that reservists will go on training with their Permanent Defence Force counterparts or they will be penny-packeted out to various training courses. Reservists are still attending a form of what would have been traditionally been called "annual camp" but it just might not be a concentration of reservists only anymore.

The Deputy mentioned 2019 and the hiatus on training camps. Yes, 2019 was our last normal training year. We have quoted the number of individuals who attended for paid training in that year. It was 1,019 individuals. At a time when the Reserve Defence Force had an official strength of 1,588 individuals, which is 75 more than it does now, we would argue that the 1,019 people who attended for paid training in 2019 was a far more accurate metric of how many active reservists we had. Those 1,019 people attended at least one paid day each that year. We would argue that the other 500 were just remnants on the personnel management system and are not necessarily there anymore in reality.

The arrival of Covid-19 in 2020 unfortunately resulted more or less in a shutdown of all normal Reserve Defence Force activity. It is worth stating that reservists did exist on Operation Fortitude, that is, the Defence Forces operation in support of the HSE. Generally, however, swab testers and vaccinators ultimately appeared in time but these were individuals who had a specialist qualification. The vast majority of the Reserve Defence Force was, therefore, stood down.

There has been a resumption of training camps again in 2021 albeit, I will say, of a particularly refined nature. A "reserve concentration", for want of a better phrase, took place in Kilworth Camp in County Cork during August, where two high-profile Reserve Defence Force courses resumed along with local support staff who came in. The irony perhaps is the 150 to 200 reservists who were present on the camp probably represented maybe 20% of what is left in the Reserve Defence Force. To most long-serving reservists from decades past, 200 individuals was a drop in the ocean in comparison to the numbers that attended reservist training in years gone by. What we are considering a high number now, therefore, would have been very bad year 20 years ago.