Mr. Neil Richardson:

Absolutely and it regularly is. I will briefly mention some of the things reservists have done in recent times. They have transferred critical patients during extreme weather events. We were widely used during the Covid pandemic in testing centres, either as support staff or conducting swapping. We have cyber defence reservists who take part in cyber coalition exercises.

There are reservists involved in Defence Forces research and innovation. There are professional mariners who serve in our Naval Service Reserve. They take their external qualifications and apply them in that sphere. Recently, we had a reservist deploy to Cyprus as part of an overseas mission to help train Ukrainians in demining as part of the EU military assistance mission. We are now at a point where reservists are engaging in quite high profile activities in support of the State and widespread day-to-day tasks in support of the Permanent Defence Force.