Mr. Neil Richardson:

I will group all of the recruitment delay questions together. It is probably best to put oneself into the mind of an applicant who applies and may only receive a first communication from the Defence Forces two, three or four months later. This is when the Defence Forces is now ready to begin the testing process. Straight away, a considerable number of applicants may have moved on because they have lost interest. If we cannot grab today's applicant as quickly as possible, there is that potential for a drop-off or interest loss.

Then the applicant is offered a fitness test. Until very recently, applicants had to go to their GP and pay for a medical certificate to medically clear them to undertake that fitness test. Straight away, there is a financial disincentive to actually turn up. We have been campaigning for a while for a waiver by which applicants could come along and allow themselves to undertake this fitness test without the requirement to first pay for a medical with their GP. This is coming on stream in the very near future. While that is to be welcomed, it has been an issue until now.

Then we move on to Defence Forces medical testing. The applicants have gone to their GP, paid to get a medical and then undertaken their fitness test. To give an example of those who have passed, they now go on to a Defence Forces medical, which involves two parts. Part one is a battery of tests conducted by a Defence Forces medic, and once those results come in, part two is an appearance before a Defence Forces medical officer. They read the results, and the applicants are essentially certified fit or unfit to progress further. At the moment, there are inordinate delays with organising these, primarily because there are either so few medics available or so few Defence Forces medical officers who can look at the results. This has resulted in the RDFRA campaigning for the complete outsourcing of medical testing for all recruits. At the moment, what is being tendered is the outsourcing of part two, that is, the element where an applicant appears before a Defence Forces medical officer or doctor.

There are still myriad issues with part one, which is getting in front of a medic in order to receive the initial battery of tests. At the moment, that is not being outsourced. While we received assurances that 600 medicals will be made available every year for the RDF going forward, this is something we have heard time and again over the last ten years. It is a case, unfortunately, that we will believe it when we see it.

With regard to fixing this, we could recommend that the full outsourcing of Defence Forces medicals and the streamlining and speeding up of the testing stages in quick succession would maintain recruits' interest and we would get people across the line faster and therefore keep more of them. The problem is that it is taking us nearly a year to get people into the RDF. We have had many examples of people being phoned after a year and asked if they are still interested in joining the RDF, and they and answer, "Sorry, I have actually gone on into the Permanent Defence Force, PDF, where I have completed my training and am getting ready for an overseas deployment." They have done all that in the time it took the RDF to call them to testing, which is a bit ridiculous.

Speeding up the testing stages is key. Our main logjam is medical resourcing. That is the one that seems to be taking a lot of recruits out of the system. We are getting a lot of statements rather than substance. It is accurate to say that 1,000 recruits have been processed or engaged with, but that is not the same as having brought them through all of the various testing stages. As mentioned in my opening statement, only 47 have been brought to completion in what is now coming up on a year.