Mr. Eugene Gargan:

Another question the Senator asked was about the regeneration plan. We welcomed the report from the Commission on the Defence Forces. It outlined, in very stark terms, what lay ahead of us and it was clear about what was required. We have not seen any great enthusiasm to take immediate action on doing that. We observed the difficulty in establishing the office of Reserve affairs, how long that took and the way in which it was established. I mean no disrespect to the fine officers who are assigned to that office. Without question, they are excellent in what they do and very enthusiastic, and they see the purpose of it. However, if this body is established without staff and a physical office, that presents a challenge straight away. It is also a year late and in the meantime our numbers are reducing. There is a glide path down to the ground with regard to our numbers.

We do our very best to arrest the decline and deal with recruitment as best we can; however, there is an uphill struggle, as Senator Craughwell has said himself. We feel that the urgency that was very clear in the report seems to have cooled somewhat in the intervening months. It is unfortunate but we can forecast a further cooling. An observer from another representative association said the report is dead and does not have any potency at this stage. This is most regrettable.

We were asked about our budget. Mr. Richardson has the exact figures for it. There was also question on UNIFIL. I will pass both of those questions to Mr. Richardson.