Mr. Neil Richardson:

I might just group a couple of the questions together. I will start with Deputy Stanton's question on the effective strength versus the establishment. Overall, the Reserve should have 4,000 personnel. Deputies and Senators might be aware that officially, the effective strength of the Reserve - what we are supposed to have - is hovering around the 1,400 mark at the moment. We dispute that figure. There is a myriad of problems with the effective strength figure. We would argue that the number of reservists in any given year over the last couple of years who have undertaken at least one day of paid training a year is the real metric for gauging whether people are still in the organisation or still active within the organisation. Last year, approximately 800 members of the Reserve undertook at least one paid day of training. We would argue that that is the real strength figure of the Reserve, not the 1,400 that is quoted in the effective strength figure. The balance comprises individuals who are essentially still on the books but have not been seen for a number of years. We understand that so far this year, the number of reservists who have undertaken paid training is tracking somewhere in the region of around 600 personnel. It will probably increase as more people come on stream towards the end of the year to about the 700 or 800 mark. We are below 1,000. We have 800 personnel across the country.

As has already been alluded to by my colleagues, for example in questions from Deputies Cronin and Berry, there is the possibility of getting former or retiring members of the PDF to join the Reserve. These are individuals with years of skills and qualifications that we cannot take the time off work to obtain, and obviously they have overseas service. Essentially, at the moment, when they are asking if they can join the Reserve, they are being told that the computer says "No". As we have discussed already, the R5 regulation does not allow in any meaningful way, or outline an administrative roadmap, for former members of the PDF or indeed retiring members to transition into the Reserve. Invariably, these people are just let go out into civilian status and they cannot join.

We had a case a few years ago which serves as a good example. It concerned a recruit who had joined the PDF as a medical officer and was given the direct entry rank of captain. He went overseas to somewhere in Africa - maybe Chad or Liberia - and was promoted to the next rank up, commandant. When he left the PDF and sought to join the Reserve, he was commissioned as a second lieutenant, which is all the way down at the bottom of the officer scale, because the computer said "No" and he could not keep his rank. He left the Reserve again and went overseas after going back into the PDF where he obtained a higher rank. When he left the PDF again they recommissioned him as a second lieutenant again, all the way down at the bottom. He went from being a senior officer in the PDF one day to being a junior entry officer in the Reserve the next day. He was a doctor. This is a rare case of an individual who was willing to transition and go through all of the administrative hurdles to go back and forth.

When most members of the PDF are leaving and express an interest in joining the Reserve, only to be informed that there is either no administrative roadmap or a myriad of hoops that they have to jump through, they decide they are not that interested and leave. The Defence Forces, as a whole, loses out and the Reserve loses out on these people who could join. Most of these situations are organisationally imposed, as Deputy Berry alluded to. Changes to regulation R5 would fix a lot of this, which is why we made it one of our three key points. The minimum age at which a reservist can join is set by international law, but the maximum age is currently capped at 35. Many people can pass entrance fitness tests in their 40s and even into their 50s. As Mr. Cooney alluded to, the return of rank is organisationally imposed. The computer says "No." If you joined the Reserve pre-2005 and are an enlisted member, you can serve until you are 60. The R5 regulation that came in in 2005 states that those who have joined after that date must go at 50. If I joined in September 2005, I can serve until I am 60 years of age. If I joined a week later, in October 2005, I will be gone at 50, for no other reason than that the computer says "No".

Finally, as I have mentioned, on members of the PDF transitioning into the RDF, the State is losing out on a massive pool of experienced people . The regulations just simply do not allow for the transition. Until those regulations are changed, we are going to see more and more of these problems continuing.