Mr. Neil Richardson:

The position on it from our association's perspective, and I think that of the wider military management and the Department of Defence, is that we are absolutely open to all avenues of service by anybody who could contribute meaningfully to military service within the State. In the big picture strategic level there is openness to all of these initiatives but we must consider the practical way of implementing them. How would you potentially recruit 100 cyber experts who are technical specialists in their field if you told them that they will not be paid in any way, shape or form for a significant proportion of what they would actually be doing. That is our difficulty and that is what we are primarily communicating today. The achievement of the stated Government policy of building an operationally capable Reserve, which is a fantastic objective, is somewhat undermined by then saying "Oh and by the way you have to do a lot of stuff for free". This is our key message today.