Mr. Neil Richardson:

It is a brief one. On integration, the Reserve is an interesting case in point because quite a considerable percentage of our applicants always are what one could deem “new Irish”. We have many eastern Europeans, people from Baltic states, and people from all walks of life and all ethnic and religious backgrounds. Another interesting point is the Reserve has double the number of female members as the Permanent Defence Forces. Whether that is just that Reserve service is inherently more attractive to females than the Permanent Defence Forces is any area for further study. We generally tend to be quite an interesting melting pot of Irish society - albeit a couple of hundred of us left.