Mr. Martin Cooney:

It is happening slowly but surely. Undoubtedly, the General Staff is committed to this. It has given us full support and have at all times been supportive of us and met with us when requested. At issue in this regard is middle management in that the message comes down the line to middle management and then stops so that the people dealing with us either have a lack of information or training or do not know what is going on. Also, at issue is the speed of the reorganisation. The value for money review took place in November; the administrative order was formalised at the beginning of February and we were to be reorganised by March.

That is significant speed of change in respect of such a large organisation which is spread throughout the country. While the administrative order was issued within weeks of the draft, the actual follow-on administration process was not up to speed. The general regulation governing the entire reserve has not been brought up to date. However, I understand that a draft is near completion and that it will be signed off. It is a little bit late for this, given that we are halfway through the process towards the next review.