Mr. Neil Richardson:

I will answer on the budgetary issue first and then on UNIFIL. Vote 36 in the Estimates for this year is worth approximately €890 million. The Reserve’s budget out of that is €2 million, which is less than a quarter of 1% of the Defence budget. The budget is ostensibly to provide a full-strength Reserve of 4,000 members, with seven paid days per year. If we had a full-strength reserve, we would all get seven paid days. Straightaway, you run into fairly basic maths problems in that most of our Reserve courses are 14, 21 or 28 days long. If we had a full-strength Reserve, we would each be getting paid for seven days and be expected to do the remaining 75% of a course for free, on top of all the other training. If trying to attract high-quality specialists with lengthy professional careers to the organisation, offering them seven paid days per year will not wash.

Let me talk about the UNIFIL mission. It is wonderful that the Defence (Amendment) Act 2021 gave us the ability to go overseas. That cannot be welcomed enough. One of the things we were campaigning for all along was a purpose for our utility. We did not have one. We could train ad infinitumbut could not go operational, but now we can thanks to the Act. However, for a reason that is not quite clear to us, the number of days per annum for which a reservist could engage in operational service was immediately capped, in an edit to Defence Forces Regulation R5, at 100 days. Therefore, if you want to go overseas on a six-month tour, you need to do form-up training, as it is known, for three months. After the six months overseas, there is a month of post-overseas activities. This is easily 200-plus days. Defence Forces Regulation R5 caps the period at 100. No reservist will be useful to an overseas unit commander if, having done three months of overseas form-up training, which is 90 days out of the 100, he or she is then available for only ten days overseas.

Let me refer to the individual on the UNIFIL mission. It was a massive watershed moment for the Reserve. It was the first time officially that Reserve boots landed on the ground as part of a UN peacekeeping mission. It was a matter of one person for seven days, a person who was able to go because personal circumstances allowed it. It was not somebody supported by employment protection legislation because that is not in place. Going was made possible by personal circumstances. If employment protection legislation were in place, the myriad of specialists that the Reserve has could be utilised in greater ways, such as in the mission to UNIFIL. However, the current regulation caps our engagement in operational activities at 100 days per year. If a person has to spend 90 of those days forming up in Ireland before going overseas, it gives only ten days overseas. All these issues need to be resolved. Again, we have had statements rather than substance. It is correct that we have had people on peacekeeping missions overseas, but so far it has been a matter of one person who went for seven days because they took seven days annual leave from their job to do it. This is an unsustainable model if the Reserve is to be utilised in a very meaningful way.