Mr. Eugene Gargan:

To follow up on Deputy Lisa Chambers' comment that the Reserve Defence Force will not exist in five or ten years, I argue, without criticism of her, that it is far more urgent and could be expressed in months. The capability intrinsic to reserve elements is withering. We are losing the ability to train personnel because we have not had a pipeline of new volunteers inducted into the Defence Forces and the Reserve Defence Force. Our focus was training and being ready and available to the Defence Forces. These are perishable skills and if we do not have the throughput, we will not have the elements established to train and utilise them. It is absolutely urgent; we are in peril and it is difficult to see us in existence in two years time if immediate action is not taken.