Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Deputy Stanton also wanted a breakdown of the Army Reserve versus the Naval Service Reserve and so on. I will provide the numbers. A key ongoing challenge for the Reserve Defence Force is to recruit and retain personnel. As of the end of last year, its effective strength was 1,489. The Army Reserve's strength was 1,373 and the Naval Service Reserve's strength was 116. The strength of the First Line Reserve was 271. There are 199 effective female personnel serving in the Reserve – 178 in the Army Reserve and 21 in the Naval Service Reserve.

We have spoken about this issue previously. If we are successfully going to include reservists in overseas missions, it will impose on their careers and work at home. I have given a commitment to consult employer groups. I do not believe that the way to do this is to go straight to legislation. We want co-operation. Otherwise, we will have employers looking for ways of avoiding the problems and inconvenience of losing workers for months at a time. I would like to approach this by trying to get the buy-in of employers. If we have to back that up with legislation, we will look at doing so.