Mr. Neil Richardson:

On proximity to barracks, absolutely yes. As we have folded back from outpost locations, as they were known in various rural communities, we have seen recruitment drop off in those areas. The vast majority of individuals joining the Defence Forces, or the Reserve Defence Force nowadays, generally tend to come from the areas immediately surrounding a barracks location. We have some outliers, where you will find somebody who has applied from 100 km away from their home location to join the barracks. There might be personal reasons involved in that, whatever they might be. It may be a particular unit or type of unit they want to serve in but for the most part, recruitment has died off in areas where there is no physical Reserve footprint on the ground.

On engagement with TY students, that is something that the uniformed military management side of the house has dealt with rather than us as a representative association but yes, there has been engagement with TY students. To my understanding, there is quite an active TY engagement programme operating within the Defence Forces. Could that be expanded to potentially inform those TY students a bit more about Reserve service rather than just Permanent Defence Force service? Absolutely but a programme of engagement is in place.