Jimmy Deenihan (Kerry North, Fine Gael)

I am sure the Minister is aware that since the reform of the Defence Forces back in the early 1990s a large number of officers have retired and gone into alternative employment. This vast resource is now available to the Minister and with a bit of encouragement and incentive they could become part of the FLR. It was recently reported that there has been an alarming fall-off in the number of people joining the RDF. This was recently the subject of a question by Deputy O'Shea. Former officers could play an important role in revitalising the RDF because of their expertise, skill and training, which in many cases cost the country a lot. How will the Minister encourage these people to come back and join the FLR?

Would the Minister agree that since the reform of the Defence Forces there have not been as many Permanent Defence Force personnel available for training the Reserve Defence Force? They are just not available because they have so many duties, including those overseas. The group of people referred to in the question could fulfil that role and may even be more suitable, in the integrated Defence Forces, for travel abroad because they have previous experience of being abroad.

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