Willie O'Dea (Limerick East, Fianna Fail)

We have direct entry competitions for professionals such as doctors, dentists, engineers and so on. The point I tried to make in Lebanon — perhaps I did not make it articulately enough — was that there was a fundamental difference between the Irish Army and the Finnish army which is largely a conscript army. People are called up as and when it needs them. Some 80% consists of reservists who can be called up as and when they are needed. If the Finnish army is undertaking a specific operation overseas which, let us say, involves reconstruction, as is the case in Lebanon, it can advertise directly for engineers, architects, carpenters or others involved in construction. People who are on record as being members of the reserve can apply for these positions. Therefore, the Finnish army can recruit more or less directly for such positions. The Finnish commander of the joint Irish-Finnish brigade told me that there were approximately 600,000 members of the reserve in Finland, which means they have a wide pool on which to call.

The point I was making in regard to specialists was that we intended, within the lifetime of the White Paper, to 2010, to allow members of the reserve to serve abroad. The way we may do this is by focusing on persons such as doctors, drivers, cooks — those with a particular skill — and letting them volunteer to serve abroad in foreign missions as members of the reserve. The main issue we must resolve is the need to provide security of employment for the people concerned in order that they will be able to serve abroad for a certain period and still have a job when they return.

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