Mr. Neil Richardson:

The evidence is in the applicant numbers. The numbers who apply to join the Reserve and who get through to the end and become recruits are often staggeringly different. There may be thousands of applicants for an intake of 300. It is not that the applicants are the "right people", to use the Minister's phrase, but that various elements of the recruitment competition prohibit them from progressing further. I mentioned an anecdotal example from Castlebar. If one's fitness test is arranged for a Wednesday and one is asked to go from Castlebar to Athlone barracks in the middle of a working day, chances are one will not be able to get time off to do it. The Defence Forces are trying to arrange these, where possible, outside working hours and on weekends to accommodate these applicants. Often, the fact that the recruitment process is made somewhat difficult for people who have civilian jobs or education commitments that prevent them from attending the recruitment testing phases means the people who join the Reserve are those whose schedules happen to align with the testing. Given the shocking difference between the thousands who apply for each recruitment competition and the 200 or 300 who are taken in, we are missing many people.