Mr. Neil Richardson:

Thankfully, after many years of campaigning, that initial GP form is disappearing and being replaced with self-certification by the applicant.

They are essentially signing a waiver stating, "I am saying I am fit enough to take this test". We had this ten years ago and then it disappeared in the reorganisation. As Deputy Berry alluded to, the wheel has now been reinvented and it is coming back.

With regard to the relationship and engagement with GPs, about six or seven years ago, annual medicals for serving reservists were outsourced to our GPs. At that point, the Army medical corps identified that it did not have the resources to give serving reservists a medical every year, so they were outsourced to our GPs. The issue is that, due to an agreement with GPs that dated back to the 1990s, the maximum sum that could be reimbursed to a GP for delivering an annual medical for a reservist was €56.73. That is a specific figure because it was 50 Irish punts converted into euro. Many GPs are looking for more than €56.73 and, particularly for the older members of the reserve, they are looking for considerably more. Now, in order to obtain their annual medical, a reservist is paying either fully or partly out of their own pocket to get this every year, whereas pre-2016, the Defence Forces medical corps was still delivering these medicals to serving reservists and they were essentially free. It was a great incentive for service – people were getting an annual physical as part of their service within the Reserve. This is now something many reservists have to pay for, as I said, exclusively or partly themselves. Thankfully, the entrance GP medical is disappearing, but we still have the serving personnel’s GP medical to deal with.