Mr. Patrick Mulley:

The value for money, VFM, review set out to take the overall costs of running and administering the RDF. The VFM review came up with a figure that, as an organisation, we seriously dispute, in that it was €21 million to €22 million. The RDF has suffered a downwards straight-line graph on its membership since 2009 because in that year, the restrictions came into place. The precursor to these restrictions happened in 2008 when a recruitment campaign, which had been sanctioned by the Minister, was cancelled permanently. In 2009, the recruiting restrictions came into place and we were not allowed to recruit more than 400 people, even though the VFM review states that we were losing 1,400 people per annum at that point and the VFM review took account of that. However, that review contains contradictory statements and therefore, had the number of people been maintained, we would then have an RDF today that could be stood up to 4,000 members.

The allocation of 4,000 members for the RDF has never come into being because, as my colleague pointed out earlier, in January 2014 we had 1,200 vacancies in the RDF and there still was attrition going on. One thing that worked against us in a sad way is that people who had been in the RDF in Galway up until the reorganisation were transferred to Cork. People who were in the RDF in Athlone were transferred to Dublin and people who were in the RDF in Dublin were transferred to Athlone. The only way in which we see this is that they were discommoded intentionally. Therefore, we lost all those people and in addition, they managed people out, because we all were given a document in March 2013 on which we were obliged to tick a box indicating whether we wished to go to a new unit, to remain with the old unit in the place it was or to be discharged. A lot of people were managed out in that way and in consequence, our numbers fell dramatically. However, the costs incurred did not fall at all and that is the reason for the €21 million. In a statement earlier in 2013, the Minister stated there would be a 50% reduction in the RDF, which thereby would generate a saving of €11 million. It is only a paper saving because the same people who were put down as incurring the cost factor of €11 million are still in the Permanent Defence Force, PDF. That saving is not true but as for the saving on the RDF, in 2008 we cost €7.9 million whereas in 2014, we are costing €1.3 million.