Gerard Craughwell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

It is important to put it on the record. Mr. Gargan made the point that reservists are an integral part of the unit in every way except where a unit is deploying overseas and the reservists cannot deploy. We have not protected reservists' employment with legislation yet. Let us say that we call up a member of the Reserve, for example one of the three in front of us. We will take Ms McCarthy because she moved from Belmullet out to west Cork, so she saved the day for the Reserve. Let us say that Ms McCarthy has a specific expertise in cybersecurity, we are going to the Lebanon and we need that person as nobody in the PDF is available. We can bring her but we cannot protect her employment while she is gone. There are all sorts of hurdles to be gone over before we could. Even though we say that reservists can serve overseas, they cannot. Perhaps Mr. Richardson will continue on please.