Willie O'Dea (Limerick East, Fianna Fail)

I agree that if the reserve Defence Forces, particularly doctors, engineers and other professionals, were to serve overseas, it would significantly alleviate the problem. Various difficulties are encountered in trying to get release from employment and these require deals to be done with IBEC etc. The target set down in the White Paper was to have reserve Defence Forces serving overseas by the end of 2009 when the period covered by the White Paper was coming to an end. We are still on target to achieve this goal.

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