Mr. Se?n Clancy:

Generally speaking, we have tried to concertina that, because it is one of the areas. There are some pressure points in the system, one of which is, for instance, the medicals. We mentioned that we have put outside contractors in place to alleviate that problem but the contract that has been put in place has its own problems. In fact, they are in relation to fulfilling the contract, if I can be quite honest, and we are pursuing that. More importantly, we have to undertake certain security clearances with our personnel coming into it. That is outside our control. In general, however, we would have had up to a six-month process. We have reduced that right down. On average, it is now somewhere between three and four months. It varies depending on the number of applications and the time of year.

Let us not forget the rolling recruitment process, which I mentioned during the earlier conversations. We are recruiting all the time. We build the lists and then we apportion recruit classes into the joint induction training centre at specific times of the year. This is in order that people can be informed and kept engaged through the process.

This goes to the heart of one of Deputy Cronin’s other questions, which was about whether we maintain contact. For anybody who is invited and does not show up, we offer them alternative dates etc. However, there is only so much you can do in that space if people do not want to engage. It is a common experience whereby we try to re-engage and get no response.

There were questions from Senator Wilson.