Mr. Eugene Gargan:

Most of the questions Deputy Stanton asked related to the effective strength. We have already answered that. He also asked about the reduction in our size since 2005, and returning at a particular rank. He asked about the availability of special leave for those serving in the Civil Service.

There is special leave for those serving in the Civil Service. I do not work in the Civil Service, but I believe that such leave is available. It is a model we looked at. We sought to incorporate that as part of one of the functions of the employment protection legislation. That model could be deployed and broadened out, at least to start with, as a trial for potential members of the RDF whose day job is working in the Civil Service. That is something we looked at.

Deputy Cronin has left. She asked about moving training camps to different geographical locations. This was something that used to be done more than is the case now. Generally speaking, there is centralised training. We go to specialist facilities, be it the Glen of Imaal or maybe one of the larger barracks, and combined training is conducted there. That is something we have done.

Regarding interoperability and standards, it is the association's view, reflecting the opinions of our members, that notwithstanding the special cases Mr. Cooney talked about, standards ought to be the same. If we are doing the same job, we should be trained to the same standard, we should be at the same level of fitness and we should be in the same overall level of health.

The final question was on our role. That has been one of the great vexed questions of my time in the RDF and the RDFRA. What exactly are we for? It goes no further than saying we are there to augment the Permanent Defence Forces, when required. Surely there has to be more to it than that. If we are looking at the international situation, as Deputy Berry and Senator Craughwell spoke about, the fact is that we have to build capability. It has to be organically done and surely the best platform for doing that is through the RDF.